
Gass. 
Book- 



9 i 




|5*"AN B 








Cent^. 



sa< tijr Svr^nsTt TRAV5.U. 




Ocean VieT^ Hotel, Block Island, H. Z. 

This Charming Summer Resort is only FIVE AND ONE-HALF HOURS RIDE. 
via Long Island Railroad and Boat, from New York City. Always Cool, Superb Beach, Surf 
and Still-Water Bathing. Splendid Fishing and Boating. House First-Class. Large Airy Rooms- 
Lighted with Gas ; Pure Water. Perfect Drainage. 

Accommodates 350 Guests. Opens June lOth. Send for Circular. 

O. fif. HARDEN, Manager. NICHOLAS BALL. Proprietor. 




17/HOLBORN A^I ADUCT. LONDdN.ENG. 

' in Mlllim \\\\\^^ 

BRADLEY & CURRIER, 

MANUFACTURERS OF AND DEALERS IN 

DOORS, ^WTl^T)O^W&,. BLIISTDS 

Stair Rail, Newels, Balusters, Frames, Mouldings, Glass, 

MARBLE, SLATE AND WOOD MANTELS, 

Grates and Fenders, Crestings and Finials, Plaster Centres, Brackets, etc., etc 
54 and 56 DEY STREET, NEW YORK. 



WHO IS UNACQUAINTED WITH THE CEOCRAPHY OF THIS COUNTRY, WILL 
. SEE BY EXAMINING THIS MAP, THAT THE 




CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC R. R. 

IS THE GREAT CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN THE EAST & THE WEST I 



Its main line runs from Chicago to Council 
Bluffs, passing ttirough Joliet, Ottawa, La Salle, 
Geneseo, Moline, Rock Island, Davenport, West 
Liberty, Iowa City. Marengo, Brooklyn, Grinnell, 
Des Moines (the capital of Iowa), Stuart, Atlan- 
tic, and Avoca ; with branches from Bureau 
Junction to Peoria ; Wilton Junction to Musca- 
♦ine. Washington, Fairfield, Eldon, Belknap, 

entreville. Princeton. Trenton. Gallatin. Came- 
lon, Leavenworth, Atchison, and Kansas City; 
Washington to Sigourney, Oskaloosa, and Knox- 
ville; Keokuk to Farmington, Bonaparte, Ben- 
tonsport. Independent, Eldon, Ottumwa, Eddy- 
ville, Oskaloosa, Pella, Monroe, and Des Moines; 
Newton to Monroe; Des Moines to Indianolaand 
Winterset; Atlantic to Lewis and Audubon; and 
Avoca to Harlan. This is positively the only 
Railroad, which owns, and operates a through 
line from Chicago into the State of Kansas. 

Through Express Passenger Trains, with Pull- 
man Palace Cars attached, are run each way daily 
between Chicago and Peokia, Kansas City, 
Council Bluffs, Leavenworth and Atchi- 
son. Through cars are also run between Milwau- 
kee and Kansas City, via the "Milwaukee and 
Kock Island Short Line." 

The "Great Rock Island" is magnificently 
equipped. Its road bed is simply perfect, and its 
track is laid with steel rails. 

What will please you most will be the pleasure 
of enjoying your meals, while passing over the 
beautiful prairies of Illinois and Iowa, in one of 
our magnificent Dining Cars that accompany all 
Through Express Trains. You get an entire 
meal, as good as is served in any first-class hotel, 
for seventy-five cents. 

Appreciating the fact that a majority of the 
people prefer separate apartments tor different 
purposes (and the immense passenger business 
of this line warranting it), we are pleased to an- 
nounce that this Corap.any runs PiMinan Palace 
Sleeping Cars for sleeping purposes, and Palace 



Dining Cars for eating purposes only. One other 
great feature of our Palace Cars is a SMOKING 
SALOON where you can enjoy your "Havana" 
at all hours of the day. 

Magnificent Iron Bridges span the Mississippi 
and Missouri rivers at all points crossed by tnis 
line, and transfers are avoided at Council Bluffs, 
Kansas City, Leavenworth, and Atchison, con- 
nections being made in Union Depots. 

THE PRINCIPAL R. R. CONNECTIONS OF 
THIS GREAT THROUGH LINE ARE AS 
FOLLOWS : 

At Chicago, with all diverging lines for the 
East and South. 

At Englewood, with the L. S. & M. S., and P., 
Ft. W. & C. R. Rds. 

At Washington Heights, with P., C. & St. 
L. R. R. , 

At la Salle, with 111. Cent. R. R. 
At PEORIA, with P. P. & J.; P. D. &E.; I. B. & 
W.; 111. Mid.; and T. P. & W. Rds. 

At ROCK ISLAND, With " Milwaukee & Rock 
Island Short Line," and Rock Isl'd & Peo. Rds. 

At DAVENPORT, with the Davenport Divisioa 
CM. &St. P. R. R. 

At West Liberty, with the B.. C. R. & N. R. R. 

At GRINNELL. With Central Iowa R. R. 

At Des Moines, with D. M. & V. D. R. R. 

At Council Bluffs, with Union Pacific R. R. 

At Omaha, with B. & Mo. R. R. R. in Neb.) 

At COLUMDUS JUNCTIo.N.with B.,C. R. & N. R.R. 

At OTTUMWA, with Central Iowa R. R. ; W., 
St. L. & Pac. and C. B. & Q. R. Rds. 

At Keokuk, with Tol., Peo. & War.; Wab., St. 
Louis & Pac, and St. L.. Keo. & N.-W. R. Rds. 

At Cameron, with H. St. J. R. R. 

At Atchison, with Atch., Topeka & Santa Fe; 
Atch. & Neb. and Cen. Br. U. P. R. Rds. 

At Leavenworth, with Kan. Pac., and Kan. 
Cent. R. Rds. 

At Kansas City, with all lines for the West 
and Southwest. 



PITLLMAX PALACE CAKS are run through to PEOKIA. DES MOINES, 
COlTNCBt. BLUFFS, KANSAS CITY, ATCHISON, and LEAVENWORTH. 

Tickets via this Line, linown a» the " Oreat Rock Island Route," are sold t>y 
all Ticket Agents in the United States and Canada. 

For information not obtaiaable at your home ticket office, address, 
^. I£IMB.4.1L,L, E. ST. JOHN, 

Oen'l iSuperintendeat. (xen'l Tkt. and Pass'gr Agt., 

Cbicagb, UL 



"#=^'" THE -^^^ 




►Ss^^S-V; 



J^^ 



A HAND BOOK OF SUMMER TRAVEL 



DESIGNED FOR THE USE AND INFORMATION OF VISITORS TO 



LONG ISLAND AND ITS WATERING PLACES 



PUBLISHED BY 

ROGERS & SHERWOOD 

21 & 23 Barclay Street— 26 & 28 Park Place 

New York 

1 S8 o 



«\ 



<<.'Ai^ 



'u 



\^ 



lV 




CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The New Long Island 7 

SeaAwanhaka ." 10 

Castle Conklin 16 

Fishing Scenes in Summer 18 

North Shore Notes 24 

The Haniptons and Payne 29 

Montauk and the Montauketts 36 

The South Side 45 

Notes by a Sportsman 47 

Long Beach 50 

Bellport 54 

Babylon and Great South Bay 58 

Ronkonkoma 5g 

Southampton • 61 

Rockaway 63 

Garden City 65 

Flotsam and Jetsam 69 

Suburban Homes 71 

Climatic Notes 75 

To New Settlers 77 

Newport and Block Island 7g 

General Directory of Long Island 93 

Advertisements lu 



^NTERED ACCORDING TO ^CT OF PoNGI^SS, BY 

IN THE Office of the J^ibrarian of Pongress at Washington, 

IN THE year 1880. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Port Jefferson from Cedar Hill Frontispiece. 

Morning at Jesse Conklin's 7 

"Wreck of tlie Circassian lo 

Sag Harbor ii 

Peconic Bay and Residence of Chief-Justice Daly 12 

Fisherman's House near Easthampton Beach — 13 

Cliffs of Montauk i4 

Castle Conklin 16 

Uncle Jesse Conklin 16 

Codfisher's Hut on Cap Tree Island 17 

Menhaden Net Reels 18 

A Catch of Menhaden 19 

Manhanset House, Shelter Island 20 

Near Easthampton 21 

The Beach at Fire Island 24 

Cabin in the Woods above Poquott 25 

JLake Ronkonkoma 26 

" Home, S^A^eet Home," Payne's Interior 29 

A Belle of Bridgehampton 30 

King Sylvester 36 

Montauk Lighthouse 37 

King David Faro and Family .' 38 

The Sweetheart of John Howard Payne 39 

Moonlight on Easthampton Beach , 40 

A School in Sight 41 

Montauk Light 41 

Flat-top Tree 42 

Reckless Explorations 43 

Stephen, King in Posse 43 

Impressions of Long Island, by an Impressionist 44 

Carpus and Metacarpus of a Whale — Amagansett 5^ 

In the Hither Wood, Montauk 55 

Montauk 56 

Fire Island 58 

Off Fire Island 6q 

Near Smithtown 62 

Near Amagansett 64 

South Cliffs Si 

The Big Boulder 85 

Below the Lighthouse 87 



THE NEV\/ LONG ISLAND 




HE year 1878 marked a very great change in the fortunes of Long Island, 
Under influences that need not be considered here, it was brought before the 
pubhc in a new light, and became an object of interest to a vast number 
of people to whom previously it had been known merely as a general geo- 
graphical fict. It had existed ; it had had a definite relation to Long Island Sound ; its 
southern shore had been prolific of shipwrecks, and about its eastern extremity were 




(By kind pennission of Messrs. Scribner &" Co.) 

grouped dim traditions of Indians, misty stories of hunting exploits, and tales of wild 
storms, and uncanny, barren moors. 

In 1878, hundreds of thousands of people from all parts of the country explored it from 
-end to end. Artists heard of the treasures that its scenery and its people possessed for 
them, and went thither in numbers ; while others ransacked its traditions and its history, 
and told in the newspapers and in the magazines, in poetry and in prose, how much it 
contained to interest and inspire, and what it offered to all for whom the summer months, 



8 NEW LONG ISLAND. 

in whole or in part, meant relaxation from business cares and the pursuit of pleasure or 
health. Its railroads were awakened from their slumbers and took on a new life, and 
if one of the causes of the indifference and apathy with which it had been regarded had 
been that, near as it was to the metropolis, it had been hopelessly difficult and discourag- 
ing of access, that cause was certainly removed. 

People began to speak of the fertility of its soil, and wondered that thousands upon 
thousands of acres should lie untitled within a few miles of New York, and be held at a 
price less than they would bring in any part of Illinois or Missouri. Others found it one 
great stretch of the loveliest watering-places on the whole Atlantic coast, where the sum- 
mer was ever tempered by the fresh ocean breezes, where there was such bathing and 
boating and fishing as existed nowhere else, and where living was to be had at rates that 
particularly appealed to a large class upon whom the times weighed more or less heavily. 

The geographical character of Long Island is sufficiently familiar to every one. Its 
peculiar shape, its abundant bays, and its environment of islands and isolated beaches, 
cause it to arrest attention on our maps. Geologic probability and Indian tradition alike 
point to a previous non-insular condition, before the waters of the Sound broke through 
Hell Gate, and left us the penalties of ferries or East River bridges and unsightly islands, 
and when the tribes passed the straits dry-shod. Our history introduces us to this spot 
as the Helle-Gat of our worthy Dutch settlers, which played sad havoc with the sturdy tubs 
of those imperturbable navigators, and which Washington Irving described as a "mighty, 
blustering, bullying, hard-drinking little strait." It used to be a great place for lobsters, 
which were in great repute for their size and quality ; but after the Battle of Long Island 
they all disappeared, never to return, it is said because of the great cannonading. William 
Eddis, Esq., his Majesty's Surveyor of Customs at Annapolis, Maryland, wrote of this 
somewhere between 1769 and 1777, when living in New York, and pronounced them 
" prodigious " in size and " vast in numbers." It is surmised that they all went up the 
Sound and betook them to Massachusetts ; but later writers began to tell of their return at 
the early part of this century, when some were taken in Kipp's Baj^ and later on " a spit 
of sand which extends in a circular direction from near the Brooklyn shore toward New 
York, a short distance south of the Fulton Ferry." 

From the Narrows to Montauk is about 125 miles, while the breadth varies between S 
and 20. The superficial area is about 1,500 square miles, or 960,000 acres. Daniel 
Denton, one of the first settlers of the town of Jamaica, on Long Island, and a son of the 
Rev. Richard Denton, the first minister of Hempstead, wrote in London in 1670 of Long 
Island, in his description of " New York, with the places thereunto adjoyning," that it was 
" most of it of a very good soyle and very natural for all sorts of English grain." In fact, 
Denton wrote more correctly about Long Island than many that followed him and that 
had better opportunities to know whereof they wrote. Of its resources he said : " The 
fruits natural to the Island are Mulberries, Posimons, Grapes great and small. Huckle- 
berries, Cranberries, Plums of several sorts, Rasberries and Strawberries, of which last is 
such abundance in June, that the Fields and Woods are died red : Which the Country- 
people perceiving, instantly arm themselves with bottles of Wine, Cream and Sugar, and 
in stead of a Coat of Male, every one takes a Female upon his Horse behind him, and so 
rushing violently into the fields, never leave till they have disrob'd them of their red 
colours, and turned them into the old habit." Even yet, at Montauk, the wild strawberry 
grows in such abundance in June that the hillsides are reddened with their color, and one 
is at a loss to know at first to what at such a season that peculiar quality of the landscape 
is due. 



NEW LONG ISLAND. 9 

" The Herbs," wrote Denton, " which the Country naturally afford, are Purslain, 
White Osage, Egrimony, Violets, Penniroyal, Alicampane, besides Saxaparilla is very 
common, with many more. Yea, in May you shall see the Woods and Fields so curiously 
bedecke with Roses, and an innumerable multitude of delightful Flowers not only pleasing 
to the eye, but smell, that you may behold Nature contending with Art, and striving to 
equal, if not excel, many Gardens in England." 

" There is several Navigable Rivers and Bays," he says, " which puts into the North- 
side of Long Island, but upon the South-side which joyns to the Sea, it is so fortified 
with bars of sands, and sholes, that it is a sufficient defence against any enemy, yet the 
South-side is not without Brooks and Rivulets, which empty themselves into the Sea.'^ 
The trout-fishers of Long Island, and they are many, may know that this veracious chron- 
icler knew a good stream when he saw it. Of these South-side brooks he speaks as 
"Christal streams," that "run so swift that they purge themselves of such stinking mud 
and filth which the standing or lowpaced streams westward of this colony leave lying." 
"Neither do they give way to the Frost in Winter or drought in Summer, but keep their 
course throughout the year," and are " well furnished with Fish, as Bosse, Sheepsheads^ 
Place, Perch, Trouts, Eals, Turtles, and divers others." 

In the matter of game, Denton speaks of " Deer, Bear, Wolves, Foxes, Racoons, 
Otters, Musquackes and Skunks, Turkies, Heath-Hens, Quails, Partridges, Pidgeons, 
Cranes, Geese of several sorts. Brants, Ducks, Widgeon, Teal, and divers others." 

Of course it is not any longer the same paradise of the hunter, and its "wilde beastes" 
are few and far between. But, nevertheless, it offers as good shooting and fishing as any 
spot this side of the Adirondacks or the Northwest. Its Spring and Fall shooting is not 
to be surpassed anywhere in the East, and its summer fishing is not equalled. 



SEAAVANHAKA, 



THE ISLAND OF SHELLS, 




WRECK OF THE CIRCASSIAN. 




HESE pages are designed to present to the reader the general aspect of Long 
Island as it has appeared to people who have visited it either as searchers after 
the picturesque or in quest of health and recreation during the summer months. 
They show in how far the various purposes and objects of summer travel can 
be satisfied by Long Island, and at the same time indicate what it has to offer in the way 
of attractions to permanent settlers. There are no more fortunate people than those 
who have established homes on either shore of Long Island. One journey along the 
road from Islip to Babylon is sufficient to demonstrate this. Not anywhere else about 
New York shall one see such tasteful and beautiful homes as are there, nor anywhere 



SEA WANHAKA. 
else^ hear as ™uch of the advantages of .he c,i™afe or .he various resources of .ha neigh- 
All these fea.ures have been se. forth in the mos. interesting shape by the writers and 




ast ) ear and thjs, and from which the quotations that follow have been taker Th.v 

lose nothtng, ,n this shape, of the intrinsic interest that prompted t^^^r or Snal pubiica^on 

The most poetic name that Long Island has been'knowm by is tha^Zsef b, Mfe 



12 



SEA IVANHAKA. 



Jennie J. Young, in her admirable sketch pubHshed in Lippincott'' s Magazine^ " Seawan- 
haka, the Island of Shells." 

"It is not by any means certain," says Miss Young, "what was the name by which 
Long Island was known to the aboriginal dwellers in its 'forest primeval,' or indeed that 
they ever had a common name by which to designate it. It seems probable that each 
tribe bestowed upon it a different name expressive of the aspect that appeared most 
striking to its primitive and poetical visitors and occupants. Among so many tribes — 
the Canarsees (who met Hudson when on September 4, 1609, he anchored in Gravesend 
Bay), the Rockaways, Nyacks, Merrikokes, Matinecocs, Marsapeagues, Nissaquages, 
Corchaugs, Setaukets, Secataugs, Montauks, Shinecocs, Patchogues, and Manhansetts, to 
say nothing of the Pequots and Narragansetts on the northern shore of the Sound — a 
community of usage in regard to nomenclature could hardly be expected. We accord- 
ingly find that one of the old names of the island was Mattanwake, a compound of 
Mattai, the Delaware for 'island.' It was also called Paumanacke (the Indian original 




PECONIC BAY, AND RESIDENCE OF CHIEF-JUSTICE DALY. 



of the prosaic Long Island), Mattanwake (the Narragansett word for 'good' or 'pleasant 
land'), Pamunke, and Meitowax. For a name, however, at once beautiful and suggestive, 
appropriate to an island whose sunny shores are strewn with shells, and recalling Indian 
feuds and customs, savage ornament and tributes paid in wampum, no name equals that 
we have chosen — Seawanhaka, or Seawanhackee, the ' Island of Shells.' 

" No general description will give an adequate idea of its changing beauty and well- 
nigh infinite variety. Its scenery assumes a thousand different aspects between odorifer- 
ous Greenpoint and the solitary grandeur of Montauk. If one could only recall the old 
stage-coach, and, instead of whirling in a few hours from New York to Sag Harbor, creep 
slowly along the southern shore, and complete the journey of one hundred and ten miles 
in two days and a half, as they did fifty years ago, a description of the route would be 
both easy and interesting. Then the old stage lumbered out of Brooklyn about nine 
o'clock in the morning, a halt was made at Hempstead for dinner, and at Babylon the 
passengers slept. Starting early, they arrived in due time at Patchogue, where they 
breakfasted late, and thereby saved their dinner, and at Quogue, about twenty-four miles 



SEA WANHAKA. 



13 



farther, they supped and slept. Again making an early start without breakfast, they 
jogged along to Southampton, where the morning meal was taken, and thus fortified they 
returned to their seats, and passing through the beautiful country lying around Water 
Mill and Bridgehampton, rattled into Sag Harbor — a far different place from the Sag 
Harbor of to-day — and there dined. Foi'tunately, the rest of the route remains to us, and 
we can still 'stage it' down the old and beautiful road to Easthampton. A leisurely 
journey of this description, at an average rate of a fraction less than two miles an hour, 
and with abundant opportunity of getting out for a brisk walk as the horses dragged their 
cumbrous load over an occasional sandhill, gave the traveler a chance of seeing the 
country he passed through. Long Island lay before him like a book, every line of which 
he could read at leisure-. He could wander along the shore of the bay at Babylon, and 
mayhap meditate upon the beauty of Nature while looking at the moonlight sleeping on 




j=^^. 



..j^- . , ■^«->.^ 



FISHERMAN S HOUSE NEAR EASTHAMPTON BEACH. 



the water ; he could at Quogue seek his way across the meadows and gaze upon the 
troubled face of the ocean. We can do so still, but these pleasures are no longer to be 
counted among the fascinating interludes of continuous travel. They are not the accom- 
paniments of a long journey that gave it a flavor of romance, and made a trip to Sag 
Harbor and return the employment of an eventful and delightful week." 

Babylon is no more remote now from New York than Morrisania was a few years ago, 
and the fast morning and evening express trains carry thousands to and fro, who think 
nothing of the distance. 

For most visitors, Great South Bay is as interesting as any place about Long Island. 
Thousands of people live by the game and fish that it produces, or by the various occu- 
pations that are created by the demands of the summer travelers, and every one that goes 
thither must needs do as an amateur and pay therefor what the regular inhabitants do as 
a necessity. The consequence is that there is no end of fishing and shooting and boat- 
ing from one end of the year to the other, and all of these sports seem to be inexhaustible, 
and with the enforcement of proper legal restrictions upon the marketmen, inexhaustible 
they will always remain. The clams and the oysters of Great South Bay are celebrated 
wherever those shell-fish are known in the civilized world, and last winter the Long Island 



14 



SEA WANHAKA. 



Railroad transported enormous quantities of the celebrated Blue Point oysters to New 
York, en route to Liverpool by the ocean steamers. 

The watermen of Great South Bay have been veiy picturesquely described by Mr. 




I ri 



Ernest Ingersoll in a very bright and readable article that appeared in Harper's Monthly, 
m October, 1878. ''When these grizzled, amphibious, tarpaulin-skinned baymen," he 
says, " whose sense of humor is keen and of whose sarcasm let the pretentious cockney 
beware— when these men are not talking of spring flights of snipe and autumn arrivals of 



SEA IVANHAKA. 



15 



sea-fowl, one is sure to hear something of fishing. Prate about the taciturnity of such 
characters ! They are the greatest gossips imaginable ; and what they don't know and 
won't* quickly tell about shooting and fishing, you — ^for one — are not likely to teach them. 
But the real * bay-man ' is mainly concerned in the fishing as an outsider ; his work — and 
an aristocratic occupation he regards it — is to help ' sports ' from the city fill their bags, 
and enjoy themselves so much that they will come and hire him again. He has no desire 
to cultivate any graces. He is aware that his peculiarities amuse them — the more out- 
landish the better ; and without much design in doing so, he comes to cherish as capital 
his uncouth and hearty ways, and expects visitors to do homage to his rough qualities. 

"The fishing begins in early spring when the ice goes out and the nets can be set. The 
first ones are open-meshed, fifty or sixty feet long by four feet wide, made of very fine 
twine, and the fish they are intended to entangle are flat-fish or flounders, which are very 
good eating. Once a day the nets are visited and the captives taken out. Late in April 
the flounders go out into the deeper water, and then are caught with hook and line, which 
is great sport, after which comes blue-fishing in May, and that is greater fun. Get a ten- 
pound blue-fish on the far end of your line, pulling one way, while your yacht is carrying^ 
you swiftly through the curling waves in the opposite direction, and you will need both 
adroitness and muscle to secure your prize. 

" But the Long Island fisherman, as well as his brethren of the craft elsewhere in this 
greedy world, is not content with fishing by hook and line, or even with small nets : he 
must have the large results to be derived from seining. The seine, as is well known, 
consists of a webbing of twine, now made by machinery, but not long ago always woven 
by hand, provided with floats along the upper edge, and with lead sinkers at the lower. 
Its use is to inclose a certain area of water, and by bringing the ends together either to a 
boat or on the shore, to secure the fish that may happen to be in the inclosure, unable or 
unwilling to escape ; and it varies in length from one sufficient to take a few minnows, to 
the shad or bunker seine a mile long, which is hauled in by a steam-windlass. 

" It is interesting to see how much the net enters into the domestic economy of all 
these south-shore people. When it is too old and ragged to be longer serviceable in the 
fishing, they hang it on the palings of the hen-yard to keep the chickens in, stake it 
around tender plants in the garden to keep off intruders, reshape large pieces into ham- 
mocks, and employ it for a dozen other domestic purposes. Their maritime instincts are 
shown otherwise. A flower-bed will be framed in by the vertebrae of a stranded whale, 
or his great flipper-bone propped up into a seat under an apple-tree, while the gilded 
figure-head of some time-honored ship forms a sort of grotesque gargoyle at the gable of 
a modern coFtage, or if statue-like, resides as the divinity of a summer-house." 

Incidental to the boating and the fishing, particularly the blue-fishing, the great weak- 
ness of Wall Street in its hours of relaxation — incidental to all the sport and recreation 
of the region, is the eating. And it is a remarkable feature of life on Long Island, that 
in whatsoever part of it you may wander you shall find everywhere the best of fare. In 
fact, no people live better than Long Islanders, nor do any others so delight in imparting 
their particular culinary pleasures and blessings to others. They have fish of all kinds 
in abundance, and Long Island tables are proverbially good. The following description 
of a typical repast at a well-known establishment on an island in Great South Bay has a 
certain unmistakable appetizing quality, which is familiar enough to people who know the 
locality, and which may interest many others. It is from an account published irt 
Scribner's Monthly, in February of this year, of the travels on Long Island of an associa- 
tion of New York artists known as the Tile Club : 



i6 



CASTLE CONKLFN. 




CASTLE CONKLIN. 



{By kind perinission of Messrs. Scribner &" Co^ 



Castle -Conklin had come down out of the air, and had assumed an aspect of compar- 
ative sohdity on the 
level patch of sand and 
sea-grass meadow that 
is known as Cap Tree 
Island. A barrel on a 
pole presented itself as 
a sort of suggestive sign- 
post to mark the chan- 
nel, and having rounded 
it, the remainder of the 
distance to the castle 
was speedily accom. 
plished. 

Down upon the end 
of his little wharf, wait- 
ing for our painter — whereby is meant not a Tiler, but a rope — stood one of the jolliest- 
looking old gentlemen in existence. 

" Hullo ! " he shouted, and his voice had a rich, merry crackle in it — " Hullo ! Here 
you all are, in a gale of wind, and wet through ! " And he shook hands with every one 
in the heartiest and cheeriest fashion as if he were a wealthy old uncle and each Tiler his 
favorite nephew, to whom he was going to leave an enormous fortune. This was Uncle 
Jesse Conklin, the proprietor of Castle Conklin, upon Cap Tree Island ; and the way that 
he welcomed the Tilers to that establishment, and bundled them into a bright, clean 
little room with a wood fire blazing and crackling m an enormous stove, with neat lamps 
burning on the clean, white-washed walls, and with plenty of clean, white, dry sand on the 
floor ; and with the wickedest-looking old pirate, in a huge pair of boots and baggy 
breeches, and wearing a great grizzly beard, and with a tremendous voice that he kept 
down in the boots aforesaid, piling on more wood — the way in which Uncle Jesse did 
this completely captivated those discriminating gentlemen, and they one and all fell in 
love with him on the spot. Coats were taken off and hung up to dry ; " traps " were 
inspected and put away. And as they gathered about the stove, toasting first one side 
and then the other, it was conceded that never before, on this side of the Antarctic 
circle, had a fire in June appeared so entirely appropriate. 
" Any gentleman like an oyster, to give him an appetite ? " 
It was the " Pirate " who spoke. He had put his head in the 
door to propound the question, and he took it out again, just in 
time to save it from being taken off by the rush that ensued. 
Outside were two boys with a huge basket of oysters at a table 
upon which could be seen, by the light of a large lantern, quar- 
tered lemons, pepper, salt and vinegar and forks. The oysters 
were prime. Kept in the cold salt water of Fire Island Inlet, 
they did not seem to pay the least attention to the absence of 
the letter r, and were in a condition that could not be sur- 
passed. They were Blue Points, than which there are none 
better, and the two boys were experts with the oyster-knife ; but over the behavior of 
those Tilers during the ensuing ten minutes a due regard for decency requires that a veil 
should be drawn. They had reached a point at which to have further regarded the oys- 




UNCLE JESSE CONKLIN. 

yBy kind permission of Messrs 
Scribner &" Co.) 



CASTLE CONKLIN. 



17 



ters in the light of sometliing to impart an appetite would have been a mockery, when 
Uncle Jesse was heard to shout, " Solid men to the front ! " and he led the way to the 
■diningrroom. 

Persons ordinarily competent to discriminate properly have been known to turn up 
their noses at the blue-fish, and to affirm that it was an inferior if not a quite unworthy 
^sh. It is herein affirmed, and not as by one whom his appetite had bereft of his judg- 
ment, that a greater error there could not be. Take a five-pound blue-fish, fresh from the 
line, split him, butter him and broil him, and serve him on a hot dish with sliced lemon 
and a sprinkling of parsley, and he is a most excellent, nay, a noble dish. Staled by 
transit in an ice-box, bruised and perhaps mutilated by the clumsy familiarities of the 
market, it must be confessed that in the metropolis he is a fish that the thrifty landlady 
favors as one of which a little will go a long way. 

The " O'Donoghue" said it was a tiley fish, which was the highest compliment he 
could pay it, but he was convinced that language failed to characterize properly the clam- 




COD-FISHER S HUT ON CAP TREE ISLAND. 

(By kind permission of Messrs. Scribner b' Co^ 

pie that succeeded it. It was nothing short of a work of art, and for deeds far less there 
have been titles conferred. But common charity, out of consideration for the too suscep- 
tible reader, suggests that here the subject should be dropped ; and so, with a passing 
allusion to fried oysters and a mere hint of a porterhouse steak two inches thick and 
inconceivably juicy, dropped it is. 



Castle Conklin, as these imaginative gentlemen chose to call it, is near Fire Island, 
and is greatly sought in the summer time by boating and fishing parties. It is easily 
reached from Babylon by boats, and excellent fare and comfortable beds are always to 
be had. Guests from Sammis' Surf Hotel, on Fire Island Beach, go there in great 
numbers daily for clam roasts, baked sheepshead and the like, which are the features of 
its cuisine, and to which the familiar surroundings impart a wholly unique and pleasant 
flavor. New Yorkers who go down on Saturdays during the blue-fishing season, find no 
difficulty in catching Monday morning's express at Babylon, and reach the city before 
business hours begin. 



FISHING SCENES IN SUMMER TIME. 




F course for the general visitor the blue-fishing of the South Shore and the 
striped bass fishing at Montauk have the greatest interest ; but next to that 
in which. one may personally participate, come the fishing industries of the 
inhabitants, of which the chief is undoubtedly netting the menhaden or 
mossbunkers. In Harper s Monthly for October 1878, Mr. Ernest IngersoU furnished a 
very spirited and interesting account of this work, which is eagerly watched from the. 
shore by visitors and by boating parties who followed the Mossbunker fleet outside- 
Great South Beach. This is how Mr. Incrersoll describes it : 




MENHADEN NET-REELS. 

(By kind permission o/ Messrs. Scribner &" Co.) 

"Off Culloden Point the look-out excitedly announced, 'Fish off the port bow!*" 
The captain seized his glass and scanned the water. So did I. 

* There's a big bunch,' he shouts. ' Watch 'em flirt their tails ! Good color ! See 
how red the water is ? ' 

* Oh yes, to be sure,' I cry. * By Jove, that's a good color! ' 

My vacant face must have belied my words, but he didn't notice it. He was shouting,. 
* Lower away the boats ! Stand by to ship the nets ! ' furiously ringing signals to the 
engineer, giving hasty orders to the wheelsman, ensconcing himself in a pair of oil-skia 

18 



FISHING SCENES. 



19 



trousers so capacious I half expected he would disappear altogether ; and so, amid the 
roar of escaping steam, the creaking of davit tackle, the laughing excitement of the crews, 
and the rattle of rowlocks, I tumbled head-foremost into a boat, and the steamer was left 
behind. Now the flirting of tiny tails was plainly visible, but I must confess that I did 
not learn to distinguish the reddish hue which indicates a school of these fish until nmch 
later in the day. The two large boats side by side were sculled rapidly toward the shore 
where the fish were seen, the forward part of each boat piled full of the brown seine, 
which extended in a great festoon from one to the other. There were four men in each 
boat, all standing up, and in our red shirts and shiny yellow oil-skin overalls, we must 
have made a pretty picture on that 
sunny morning. Close by was a 
pound net, where a porpoise was roll- 
ing gayly, notwithstanding his cap- 
tivity, but by manoeuvring we got the 
' bunch ' turned away from it and 
well inshore where the water was not 
too deep. At last we were close to 
them, and now came a scene of ex- 
citement. 

' Heave it I ' yelled the captain, 
and in each boat a sailor whose place 
it was worked like a steam-engine, 
throwing the net overboard, while 
the crews pulled with all their muscles 
in opposite directions around a circle 
perhaps a hundred yards in diam- 
eter, and defined by the line of cork 
buoys left behind, which should in- 
close the fish. In three minutes the 
boats were together again, the net 
was all paid out, an enormous weight 
of lead had been thrown overboard, 
drawing after it a line rove through 
the rings along the bottom of the 
seine. The effect, of course, was 
instantly to pucker the bottom of the 
net into a purse, and thus, before the 

poor bunkers had fairly apprehended their danger, they were caught in a bag whose 
invisible folds held a cubic acre or two of water. 

This was sport ! I had not bargained for the hard work to come, to the unsportive 
character of which my blistered palms soon testified. 

None of the fish were to be seen. Every fin of them had sunk to the bottom. 
Whether we had caught ten or ten thousand remained to be proved. Now, lifting the net 
is no easy job. The weight of nearly ten thousand square yards of seine is alone 
immense, but when it is wet with cold sea-water, and held back by the pushing of 
thousands of energetic little noses, to pull it into a rocking boat implies hard work. 
However, little by little it came over the gunwales, the first thing being to bring up the 
great sinker and ascertain that the closing of the purse at the bottom had been properly 




A CATCH OF MENHADEN. 
{By kind permission 0/ Messrs. Scribner &' Co.) 



20 



FISHING SCENES. 



executed. Yard by yard the cork line was contracted, and one after another the fright- 
ened captives began to appear, some folded into a wrinkle or caught by the gills in a 
torn mesh (and such were thrown back), until at last the bag was reduced to only a few 
feet in diameter, and the menhaden were seen, a sheeny, -gray, 
struggling mass, which bellied out the net under the cork line 
r ^ 7^''''~" "^ \ ^"^^ under the boats, in vain anxiety to pass the curious barrier 
which on every side hemmed them in, and in leaping efforts to 
escape the crowding of their thronging fellows. How they 
gleamed, like fish of jewels and gold ! The sunshine finding 
its way down through the clear green water seemed not to 
reflect from their iridescent scales, but to penetrate them all, 
and illumine their bodies from within with a wonderful chang- 
ing flame. Gleaming, shifting, lambent waves of color flashed 
) and paled before my entranced eyes — gray as the fishes turned 
backs, sweeping brightly back with a thousand brilliant 
tints as they showed their sides — soft, undefined, and mutable, 
down there under the green glass of the 
sea ; while, to show them the better, myriads 
of minute medusae carried hither and thither 
glittering little phosphorescent lanterns in 
gossamer frames and transparent globes. 

All possible slack having now been 
taken in, the steamer approaches, and tow- 
ing us away to deeper water, for we are 
drifting toward a lee shore, comes to a 
stand-still, and the work of loading begins. 
The cork line is lifted up and made fast to 
the steamer's bulwarks, to which the boats 
have already attached themselves at one end, 
holding together at the other. This crowds all the bunkers together in a mass between the 
two boats and the steamer's side, where the water boils with the churning of thousands of 
active fins. A twenty-foot oar is plunged into the mass, but will not suffice to sound its 
living depths. Then a great dipper of strong netting on an iron hoop is let down by 
tackle from the yard-arm, dipped into the mass under the guidance of a man on deck 
who holds the handle, the pony-engine puffs and shakes, and away aloft for an instant 
swings a mass of bunkers, only to be upset and fall like so much sparkling water into 
the resounding hold. 

* How many does that dipper hold ? ' 

* About a thousand.' 

'Very well, I will count how many times it goes after a load.' 

But I didn't. I forgot it in looking down the hatchway. The floor of the shallow 
hold was paved with animated silver, and every new addition falling in a lovely cataract 
from far overhead seemed to shatter a million rainbows as it struck the yielding mass 
below, and slid away on every side to glitter in a new iridescence till another myriad of 
diamonds rained down. If you take it in your hand, the moss-bunker is an ordinary- 
looking fish, like a small shad, and you do not admire it : but every gleaming fiery tint 
that ever burned in a sunset, or tinged a crystal, or painted the petals of a flower, was 
cast in lovely confusion into that rough hold. There lay the raw material of beaut}^ 




FISHING SCENES. 21 

the goro-eous elements out of which dyes are resolved — abstract bits of lustrous azure 
and purple, crimson and gold, and those indefinable greenish and pearly tints that make 
the luminous background of all celestial sun-painting. As the steamer rolled on the 
billows and the sun struck the wet and tremulous mass at this and that angle, or the 
whole was in the half-shadow of the deck, now a cerulean tint, now a hot brazen glow, 




A 






17^ 



'.^. 



-^Sfm^mm^ 






iA\' /-^ 



;'AA\y •> 




NEAR EASTHAMPTOX. 



would spread over all for an instant, until the wriggling mixture of olive backs and 
pearly bellies and nacreous sides, with scarlet blood-spots where the cruel twine had 
wounded, was buried beneath a new stratum. 

* How many ? ' I asked, when all were in. 

* Hundred and ten thousand,' replied Captain Hawkins. ' Pretty fair, but I took 
three times as many at one haul last week.' 

' What are they worth ? ' 

* Oh, something over a hundred dollars. — Hard a starboard ! go ahead slow.' 

And the labor of the engines drowned the spat, spat, spat of the myriad of restless 



22 FISHING SCENES. 

little tails struggling to swim out of their strange prison, while I climbed to the mast- 
head to talk with the grizzly old look-out, who had been round Cape Horn thirteen 
times, yet did not think himself much of a traveler. 

The cry of, ' Color off the port bow ! ' brought us quickly down the ratlines and 
again into the boats. 

The business of catching these fish and reducing them to oil and manure has only 
lately been developed into large proportions. From the earliest times the coast farmers 
have been accustomed to catch them in seines and spread them on their fields — a very 
unsavory practice ; and to some extent oil was pressed from them long ago. But the 
fishing was all done in small sailing vessels, and depended on the good fortune of the 
fish coming to the right spot. A few years ago steamers began to be substituted, and 
are now almost exclusively employed by those who are able to embark any money in the 
enterprise. About seventy are engaged, all the way from New Jersey to Nova Scotia, 
catching an aggregate of 50,000,000 a year. Greenport alone is said to have half a 
million dollars thus invested. This competition, however, has cut down the large 
margin of profit formerly, enjoyed. 

In October the menhaden disappear, whither no one knows, probably to the deep 
water of mid-ocean. 

That day we caught 250,000 fish, and made a round trip of a hundred miles, going 
away outside of Montauk Point, where it was frightfully rough after a two days' easterly 
gale. Great mountains of water, green as liquid malachite, rolled in hot haste to mag- 
nificent destruction on the beach, where the snowy clouds of spray were floating dense 
and high, and the roar of the surf came grandly to our ears wherever we went. Yet the 
difficulties were none too great for these hai'dy fishermen, who balanced themselves in 
their cockle-shells, and rose and sank with the huge billows, without losing their hold 
upon the seines or permitting a single wretched bunker to escape." 

Menhaden, chopped up fine into what is called "chum," are used for deep sea blue- 
fishing. The biggest takes of bluefish are secured in this way, and chumming is greatly 
preferred. The boat is anchored, and the " chum," thrown over continuously in small 
quantities, drifts away with the tide. The lines, baited with large slices of menhaden, 
drift with it and are eagerly seized by the voracious ten and twelve pounders. 

The bass-fishing off the rocks at Montauk is a very different sort of sport, and one 
fifty-pounder is glory — and work — enough for a day. Splendid sport with rod and line 
may be had there in the fall, and excellent accommodations at Stratton's or Montauk 
lighthouse. Comfortable conveyances are always to be had at most reasonable rates at 
Sag Harbor and at Easthampton. 

All fishermen will be interested in the story that a sportsman tells in Forest and 
Stream of the way in which fish bite at Montauk : 

*' You've all noticed how often a hungry fish will leap for your fly, regardless of warnings 
in sharp pricks of the hook, until at last he's laid away in your creel. I wasted much 
sympathy over fish I have caught with their jaws torn, thinking how they must have suf- 
fered ; but when I caught a trout which had an old hook in his jaws, and later, one with 
a hook and nearly three feet of line attached, I felt easier, and more as if they had 
deserved it for their greediness. These fish were caught in a small stream, and therefore 
my chances of catching a fish previously hooked were not desperate. But in salt water, 
with the whole ocean before you, you will admit that the like chances are as slim as draw- 



FISHING SCENES. 



23 



ing the first prize in a lottery. A few years ago I was one of a fishing party on the smack 
Quilp, Capt. George Harrison. One morning while fishing off Shagnana Reef for codfish 
I fastened, to a large one and succeeded in bringing him to the surface. The Captain 
stood by to take him, when away he went, with a new hook and six feet of line. I told the 
Captain I would know that fish again when I saw him. * Yes,' he said, ' when you see 
him you will.' That night we lay in Fort Pond Bay and early the next morning started 
for the south side of Long Island, and anchored a long distance off shore. Our lines were 
soon over, and almost the first fish I caught was the identical fish I lost on Shagnana Reef 
the day before, over twenty miles from our present fishing grounds, with the same hook, 
with serving and finely-filed point, and marked by file-cuts ; I knew it well. I told this to 
■one of our smackmen here, believing he would tell me, ' You don't expect me to swallow 
that;' but he replied, 'Yes! once I was fishing off Block Island; didn't have much 
luck ; lost a heavy hook and some feet of line ; thought I'd try a run down to Coxen's 

Ledge, when I'll be d d if I didn't catch that same fish and he had my gear in his 

jaw.' Another says, ' I fell in with some swordfish off Montauk and got a couple and 
put the iron into a big one, but it tore out ; the iron struck his back fin and cut it into two 
parts, and it looked pretty ragged. The next day we went off Block Island and I saw the 
same fish, and again on No Man's Land ; and when I got to Nantucket I saw him again ! 
I met the same fellow off the Capes, and finally ran afoul of him off Portland, where I got 
him. He was the same fish, if I am any judge, which I struck and lost olT Montauk, and 
his fin hadn't healed !' It is well known that whales have been killed, having irons in 
them marked with vessel's name, years after and thousands of miles from the spot where 
they were first struck." 



SOMETHING ABOUT THE NORTH 

SHORE. 

MISS JENNIE J. YOUNG, IN " LIPPINCOTT." 




O adapt ourselves to modern conditions, and as we must view Long Island in 
sections to appreciate it as a whole, a route may be chosen in which, by using; 
both railroad and stage, we may see even more of it, and that to greater ad- 
vantage, than the old-time traveler. It is necessary, in the first place, that 
something should be seen of the northern shore. In character and associations it differs 
widely from the southern. There is, in the second place, the central section, in avoiding 
which much of the rural and most placid beauty of the island would be lost. There 




THE BEACH AT FIRE ISLAND. 



is, thirdly, the southern shore, varied in itself according as the point at which it is viewed 
lies on the ocean or on the landlocked bays between Hempstead and Mecoc, and extend- 
ing to the rugged headland of Montauk. We shall thus, by passing from point to pointy 
see as in a panorama all that need now attract our attention in viewing Seawanhaka. 



THE NORTH SHORE. 



25 



The place which the Indians named Curasewogue is now mainly distinguished by the 
cemeteiy of Cedar Hill. Passing among the graves, we reach the summit, and a wonder- 
ful scene bursts upon our view. Looking north toward where the village is nestling in a 
hollow surrounded by woods, the waters of Port Jefferson Bay are lying without a visible 
ripple; the sails .of the ships passing up and down the Sound gleam in the sun; and 
beyond them, like a hazy line, are the shores of Connecticut. On the left are glimpses 
of farmhouses, the church-spires of Setauket, and rolling fields alternating with woods. 
On the right are more woods, bounded far away by the broken shore of the cliff-bound 
Sound. The wooded peninsula in front that stretches to the north, forming the eastern 
shore of Port Jefferson Bay, was named by the old Puritan settlers — for what reason it 
would be hard to divine — Mount Misery. It is now, fortunately, more generally known 
in the neighborhood by the name of the Strong estate of Oakwood. Sea, shore, woods- 
and valleys make up a picturesque scene of peaceful beauty, and one forgets in the 
presence of its living charms that the site upon which he stands is within the limits 
of a city of the dead. 

We descend into the village — which lies 
as if in a slumber that has lasted for a cen- 
tury and a half — at the head of the bay. 
The Indians named the place Souwassett, 
and the Puritans, in their usual matter-of- 
fact manner, called it Drowned Meadow. 
Its present name was adopted about forty 
years ago, probably in a patriotic mood, and 
also in the belief that the name it then bore 
was too unqualified and likely to give rise 
to unwarrantable prejudices. That there 
was some truth, if there was neither beauty 
nor imagination in the name, is, however, 
evident from the marsh-lands lying between 
the village and Dyer's Neck or Poquott, 
which divides the harbor from that of Se- 
tauket on the west. One of the old land- 
marks of the village, dating from about the 
first quarter of the last century, is the house 

built by the Roe family when the settlement was first made. It now forms part of the 
Townsend house, and is still occupied by collateral descendants of its builder. Acces- 
sions to the little colony came slowly. Even the fine harbor could not compensate for 
the disadvantages of Drowned Meadow for building purposes, and the hillsides are steep 
and rocky. But about 1797, when it is said there were only half a dozen houses in the 
village, shipbuilding was begun, and its subsequent rise was comparatively rapid. 

Securely though it seems to repose among its wood-crowned hills, it has had at least 
one exciting episode in its history. During the war of 18 12 its shipping suffered consid- 
erably at the hands of King George's cruisers, and one night the enemy entered the 
harbor and captured seven sloops that were lying there at anchor. Otherwise, life at Port 
Jefferson appears to have been as it is now, unexciting and peaceful. Its attractions are 
in part those of association, but chiefly those of Nature — its sandy shore, its still woods^ 
and its placid bay. It is a place to fly to when the only conception of immediate happi- 
ness is to be still, to float idly upon water that has no waves to detract from the perfection 




CABIN IN THE WOODS ABO\ E rOQUOTT. 



26 



rff£ :IVOJ^rjI SBORE. 



of a dre - — ^^ ^^ORE, 




^•AKE RONKONKOHM. 

-T^o the west of thf» mi 

f ":~s;; jE?f '"'"■'^^^^^^^^^^ r - -' '■- 

" -fs'^^d immediately upon set- 



THE NORTH SHORE. 



27 



tling on its western extremity, but it is said upon good authority — and the fact is a nota- 
ble one in the history of the island — that slavery never existed there except in name. 
The work of the farms and houses was divided with the utmost impartiality among the 
nominal slaves and the white men and boys of the household. Possibly, then, there is 
not only no dark background to the lives of these Port Jefferson negroes, but one that in 
comfort and happiness is a contrast to the present. One little fellow — a darkling he 
should be called — peeped out shyly as we passed, and then disappeared in a hut which, 
though embowered in creeping plants and bushes, did not suggest either comfort or 
beauty when the trees are bare and the winds of winter are moaning through the woods. 
Beyond these cabins the path leads to the pebbly and shell-covered shore of Poquott. 

To the east of Port Jefferson the shore runs in bolder outline to Orient Point, but 
within thirty or forty miles to the west there are innumerable points and well- sheltered 
bays and inlets that give the scenery the same picturesque character that is found at Port 
Jefferson. It may be taken, in short, as representing the northern side of the island. 

When the shore is left a few miles behind, the country assumes an entirely different 
aspect. The roads run through a wide tract covered as far as the eye can see with young 
timber and brushwood. In places the charred trunks give evidence that it has at no dis- 
tant period been passed over by a forest-fire. The view to the south is bounded by the 
low range of hills that runs nearly the entire length of the island. In a hollow in this 
rising ground, a few miles east of Comae Hills, about two miles northeast of Mount 
Pleasant and near the eastern continuation of the Comae range, we drop suddenly upon 
the most charming of the lakes of Long Island — Ronkonkoma. It matters little from 
which side it is approached or from what point it is viewed — Lake Ronkonkoma is in 
every way and in every aspect beautiful. Around it on all sides is an undulating country 
comprising both woodland and farm, and dotted with quaint old houses of the many- 
gabled order, and a few that affect a certain latter-day primness. The architectural 
patriarchs and juveniles represent two different orders of things. The first tell of the 
■early colonists of two hundred years ago making their way through the dense woods from 
the northern shore, and choosing dwellings by the lake where the land was good. The 
latter tell of later settlers, attracted solely by the beauty and salubrity of the place. 
'There is one house still standing on the east side of the lake, a weather-beaten veteran 
•of a centur)' and a half. It has been in the same family ever since it was built, and if 
its walls were as eloquent of facts as they are of sentiment, it could no doubt unfold a 
varied tale. The place has, of course, a history based upon Indian times. Where we 
now see boats and skiffs, canoes were once paddled, and the lonely seclusion of the lake 
is said to have made it the theme of many an Indian story. Only one legend now sur- 
vives. The lake has always been, and is now, well stocked with fish, and it is in places 
■so deep that the Indians thought it unfathomable. With a curious kind of veneration 
they believed that the Great Spirit brought the fish that swarm in its waters, and kept 
them under his special care. Even when the whites came upon the scene the red men 
clung to their superstition, and would not catch nor eat the fish, believing them to be 
superior beings. 

A change has corne over the spot since that day. The land near the lake has been 
partially cleared, but not to such an extent as to divest it of any of its early beauty. A 
fringe of trees encloses it on all sides except the north, where a narrow belt of sand 
-divides it from a lily pond. It is from that feature, and from the glistening western 
: shore, that the lake was called Ronkonkoma (Sand Pond). At the point where it first 
ibursts upon the traveler from the south, it is seen gleaming through the trees like a dia- 



28 THE NORTH SHORE. 

mond in a robe of green. Standing upon its margin, we are about fifty feet above the 
sea, and the cool wind that is rustling among the trees comes fresh from the Great South 
Bay, seven miles away. To right and left are high tree-covered banks, and to the north 
across the lake, about a mile off, the white sand is shining like a line of silver. The 
trees above the eastern shore are reflected as in a mirror, and the little boat with its 
snowy sail is there in duplicate, itself and double. 

But to be seen at its best, Ronkonkoma should be viewed from one of the higher 
points along its eastern shore when the sun is sloping down the western sky. One 
memorable evening this view was so beautiful as to be almost unearthly. The sun had 
sunk behind a heavy cloud-bank, which it tipped with a dull tawny red. By and by the 
sky began to change. The cloud sank lower, and lay upon the horizon in a perfectly 
black mass that threw its shadow upon the landscape. Its lining had deepened in color 
to a blood-red, and the clouds higher up the arch of the sky were ringed with a rich crim- 
son border. Higher still they shaded off into paler tints, mingled with a copper-like hue 
that merged in the lighter clouds into gold. Above these were fleecy, rounded fragments 
of cloud floating over the deep blue like burnished brass upon lapis lazuli ; and higher 
yet, about midway to the zenith, every cloudlet was tinged with pale yellow. Could such 
a sky be represented on canvas, it would be condemned as unnatural — a case of the 
painter's imagination carrying him beyond the limits of true art. But it was from the 
reflection in the lake that the scene derived its weird, supernatural character. The 
shadows lay heavily upon the trees and bank that line the western shore. Upon the 
edge of the waters, which were so still that not a ripple waved the line drawn upon the 
white streak of sand, the deep red of the cloud upon the horizon reappeared. Nearer 
were the graduated tints of crimson, copper, gold, brass and pale yellow, every hue 
mirrored in the crystal lake with a fidelity so perfect that one was in doubt whether the 
reality or the reflection were the more gorgeous. 

To the east and west of the lake, for twenty miles on either side of it, stretches a 
pleasant tract, chiefly of rolling woodland, with here and there a farm or garden. 
Wherever the land has been cleared and brought under cultivation, it appears to give 
ample return to the husbandman. But the least-observant traveler can hardly help being 
struck by the sight of a few fields of apparently healthy grain surrounded by miles of 
brushwood. It is a mystery not yet satisfactorily solved, how within fifty miles of a city- 
like New York so much land should be left unproductive and untilled. All the evidence,, 
both of experiment and of opinion, goes to show that the soil, if not the richest in the- 
world, is far too good to be given over to scrubby bushes and luxuriant weeds. 



CONCERNING THE HAMPTONS AND 
' JOHN HO^VARD PAYNE. 




O lovelier stretch of country, none more pleasing to the eye of artist or poet, 
none more peaceful and poetically happy in its outward expression, or more 
varied and interesting in its contour and color, is to be found anywhere along 
our Eastern Coast, than lies between the Shinnecock Hills and Montauk. The 
people that go there in numbers for the summer months have not robbed it of its charms 
nor modernized it into commonplace. One still boards, if not in a house that is over two 




• HOME, SWEET HOME ; 



-PAYNE S INTERIOR. 



hundred years old, at least in one that is simple and unpretentious. These Hamptons 
are no hackneyed watering-places, and people who want the glitter and excitement of 
Long Branch or Saratoga are solemnly warned away from there. For those, however, 
who want rest and wholesome recreation in the summer season, who like to be 
surrounded by healthful and happy influences, there is no place like them. 

Every visitor to Easthampton, which one reaches easily from Bridgehampton station 
by stage, will read with interest the local reminiscence of John Howard Payne, secured 
by the artists, already referred to, during their sojourn there last June. We quote it in 
full from ScribJier's Monthly. 



3° 



CONCERNING THE HAMPTONS 



Twys ■ DL 
HD- DA 

•portr<iii-[ci'} 
en- ^^ill- iiot 

-ni\rried- -whe 

-)-iyRr|-one 

tofe away t 
yt- of^- D/^^ 




A BELLE OF BRIDGEH AMPTON. 

{By permission of Messrs. Scrijner ^ Co.) 



That afternoon the club arrived at Easthampton. The town consisted of a single 
street, and the street was a lawn. An immense taj>is vert of rich grass, green with June,. 

and set with tapering poplar trees, was bor- 
dered on either side of its broad expanse 
by ancestral cottages, shingled to the ground 
with mossy squares of old gray '■' shakes " — 
the primitive split shingles of antiquity. The 
sides of these ancient buildings, sweeping 
to the earth from their gabled eaves in the 
curves of old age, and tapestried wath their 
faded lichens, were more tent-like than house- 
like. The illimitable grassy lawn, swept 
with racing breezes at their feet, stretched 
east and west to infinity. Not the War- 
wickshire landscape, not that enchanted 
stretch from Stratford to Shottery, which 
was Shakspere's lovers' walk, is more pastor- 
ally lovely. 

Every other house in these secluded vil- 
lages is more than two hundred years old. 
They last like granite, — weather-beaten, torn to pieces, and indestructible. They alter- 
nate with smart cottages covered with the intensest paint. " Pretty as a painted boat "" 
is the beach-dwellers' ideal of elegance, and the garish freshness that appropriately con- 
stitutes the comeliness and the salvation of a boat is naturally the artistic standard in 
land-architecture too. The aesthetic sense of a town is divided between an ancestral 
feeling which approves the tattered old pavilions of Queen Charlotte's day — valuing these 
mossy tents for their raggedness as if they were old lace — and new clapboards constantly 
deluged and sluiced with paint. It is the mariner's simple fidelity, true to the kindred 
purities of holy-stone and hearth-stone. 

They found the village of Easthampton devoted to a sort of cultus of the author of 
"Home, Sweet Home." Every elderly person remembered him, every young person: 
proposed to be a guide to the poet's haunts. 

This mother of the bard, a Jewess, was not without a historical and ancestral connec- 
tion. She was the daughter of a rich Jew from Hamburg, who was ruined by the 
American Revolution. The wife of the Hamburg exile was a Miss Hedges, and this 
lady had an American brother who became, by the death of the possessor of the title, 
Earl of Dysart. When an agent came to this country to identify the American heir, the 
unwitting wearer of the dignity was already dead, having been but for a few weeks 
unconsciously an earl. He left a family of daughters only, so the estate reverted to the 
Crown. Still, the poet's grandmother was, for a month, sister to the Earl of Dysart. 
The family of Isaacs still exists in Easthampton ; their tradition is that Payne's grand- 
father, with the caution of a merchant of his race, always kept his books in Hebrew. The 
excursionists will never hereafter be able to think of the spendthrift Payne without 
seeing a vision behind him of the Hebrew Isaacs with the scales and the coins, and the 
ledgers in Chaldean cipher. 

Payne's father at one time taught in the ancient school-house, but in the poet's youth, 
the incumbent of the professor's chair was an old maid of the most vinegarish descrip- 
tion. This dreadful beldam, Miss Phebe Filer, taught Payne that careful spelling and 



AND JOHN HOWARD PAYNE. 3r 

that exquisite chirography which were afterward to bear the burden of the lines now 
written all over the world. Her methods of suasion were entirely moral. She used to 
frighten the quick fancy of the future bard by stories of the " sarpients and scorpings " 
which haunted the closets and cellars of the school. 

"Howard's voice was squealing, in conversation," said an Easthampton patriarch,, 
" but when he recited poetry it got deep, very deep. As a young man, he was the 
handsomest lad on Long Island, but when I last saw him all that was changed. He was. 
older than me, and he walked about with his head down, so." 

The old neighbor's impression of Payne's personal comeliness was not exaggerated.. 
"The success of Master Betty," says Leslie's Autobiography, "excited a youth in 
America, like Betty, of handsome features and graceful manners, and with a charming 
voice, to come forward as an American Young Roscius. I saw Payne play Romeo in 
Philadelphia, and was perfectly delighted. Whether he equaled Betty on the stage, I 
know not ; but he was superior to him off the stage, for while yet in his teens, he became 
the editor of a newspaper or magazine — I forget which — and was a favorite associate of 
the foremost literary men in Boston, New York and Philadelphia." 

This extract backs handsomely the personal claims of the young carpenter of East- 
hampton. The villagers relate that when Payne, fresh from the old school that is now 
the town-house, wrung permission from his reluctant father to go upon the stage, the 
good schoolmaster, William Payne, stood in tears behind the coulisses, irrepressibly 
weeping, while the public frantically applauded. He could hardly bear the spectacle of 
that dazzling first night. 

" Whether Payne was a duffer or a brick," said the " Owl," with unusual solemnity, 
" and whether ' Home, Sweet Home,' is a consecrated liturgy or a detected bore, I move 
we give the old boy a chorus. Let's sing Payne's cradle-song around Payne's cradle ! " 

But the culpable levity with which they treated poor Payne and his legend, marked 
as it was by night, could not stand before the evidence accumulated by the daylight. 
It faded gradually away, and gave place to a vivid interest, an eager and even a 
fierce partisanship. 

" Fellows ! I've found his house ! " burst out '• Polyphemus," triumphantly, in the 
morning. "That house last night was an infamous pretender." 

So they trooped off to see the genuine home of Howard Payne, the hearth where he 
was really cradled and dandled and reared. They marched in a body down the village 
street to a certain distance eastward from the inn, singing in half-voice as they went 
their jingling balderdash: 

" Cr-rack! snap ! goes the whip ; I whistle and I sing. 
I sit upon the wagon, I am happy as a king. 
My horse is always willing ; as for me, I'm never sad. 
There's no one leads an 'appier life than Jemmy, the corrter's lad." 

Received with the easiest and pleasantest welcome at the antique homestead, they 
went on to make it their own, artist-fashion. Two or three proceeded to crowd each 
other up the wide fire-place in their efforts to secure a good position to sketch this 
nucleus, this ganglion, this node, this vital center of the whole Payne legend. They 
made various studies of the ample hearth, with its fine velvet pall of black soot, as other 
artists, indeed, had abundantly done before them. They plunged at the well, they 
assaulted the hen-coop, they crept around the garden to paint the vine-shaded parlor" 



32 CONCERNING THE HAMPTONS 

Avindows at which little Howard had been held up by the fair Jewess to gaze out 
upon the world. 

Meanwhile the " O'Donoghue " and " Chestnut," who had disappeared with airs of 
mystery, were off on another scent. In due time they returned, and offered to introduce 
the "Owl" and "Polyphemus" to a lady whose acquaintance they had just had the 
honor of making — the " little sweetheart" of John Howard Payne. 

It was a happy and a pathetic encounter, that with the handsome, dark, bright-eyed 
elderly lady, with hair scarcely touched with gray, who sat in a roomy parlor, pensively 
fingering old letters of Payne's, in almost all of which she was spoken of in mock adora- 
tion as his child Dulcinea. Prettily proud, cheerful, living gladly in that grandest 
memory of her life, she might have been addressed as Ronsard addressed the lady in 

Thackeray's lyric : 

" Old tales are told, old songs are sung, 
Old days come back- to memory. 
You say : when I was fair and young, 
A poet sang of me ! " 

This was the petted " Rosalie," who, as a romping school-girl, had received the most 
•extravagant devotion of the song-maker. The lips on which his kiss still lingered had not 
lost their red. Her boxes were full of his home letters, letters exhibiting him in the best 
■of lights, as the exiled villager yearning for his little hamlet. They are written with a 
light touch, with abundant dashes of wit that is not very costly, with a thorough sense of 
what will please the kind townspeople who will hear them, with perpetually welling 
memories of John, and Dick, and Harry, who will be tickled to get messages from Tunis 
or from Washington. They are now full of the minute inquiries that ever fill the rustic 
intelligence office —about Doctor Buell and Deacon Sherrill, and Mr. Akerly, the teacher 
of French. Now and always, they are full of " the ladies." " To the ruins of Carthage," 
he says once in speaking of a school celebration at Easthampton, " a copy of Picket's 
'Academician ' happened to drift, and I to open it at the page recording academical 
honors to Anicartha Miller and Julia Sands ! " 

Is there not something human and likeable in this revelation of the unsuccessful 
grizzled, bankrupt bachelor, jaded with the opera, jaded with the drama, jaded with 
politics, jaded with life, sitting upon Carthage with Marius, and musing upon Ani- 
'Cartha and Julia as they flutter up in their best lutestrings to receive a country 
academy's diplomas ? 

The earliest letter of the batch is jocosely addressed on the outside, to the village 
postmistress, apparently : " Miss Joann Miller, behind the counter very busily opening 
all the letter-bags for an office-full of the citizens of Easthampton." The same missive 
is signed in character : " I have the honor to be, madam, your very faithful and devoted 
•deputy-postmaster, John Howard Payne." This sheet is dated 1834. 

Thenceforward and for fifteen years,— till 1849,— there is a steady stream of allusions 
to the little (but growing) Rosalie. Every message is in a tone of playful courtship, 
adapted at first to the fascinating fairy of a child's party, but deepening in tone and 
hecoming whimsically despondent as the sweet " object " develops, and finally yields to 
the inevitable laws of absence and distance. " I thank Miss Rosalie for inviting me to 
a game of loto," he says in 1834,. he being then forty-two, and the maiden perhaps 
fo .irteen. A year or two after, he remarks : " It is reported that Mr. Akerly is teaching 
my little (but she has ceased to be litde) Rosalie French^ In later years he grows still 
ionder, but acknowledges the increased age of his pet by calling her " Mamma " and 



AND JOHN HOWARD FAYNE. 33 

" Mrs." His kisses now were the safe kisses of a grizzled, elderly bachelor. " Pray tell 
Mrs. Rosalie," he writes at fifty-six, " if ever I go to her village again I shall insist on 
the rest of the kiss of which I was in part defrauded." Alas ! jvhen the swain is nearing 
sixty, girls don't particularly remember whether his kisses were completed or not ; he is 
welcome to finish them if he thinks they need it. But earlier than this he seems to 
acknowledge already that this protracted make-believe has been given the sack, " I 
have persuaded Aunty and Mr. and Mrs. Isaacs to join and try to revive the recollection 
of me * * * the chief obstacle to such a visit would be the news I hear of your sister 
Rosalie! They say she has jilted me, and has given herself away to some one else, 
when I really expected she would reserve herself for me. This is the unkindest * cut ' 
of all." That is in 1839. In 1849 he is calm again, and writes formally, like an old 
man : " My best remembrance to your Mamma and to Mamma Rosalie." But a few 
years previously he is still on the rack, asking, with the whim of mock misery strongly 
upon him : " Am I to be utterly forsaken ? Does even Miss Rosalie treat me with cold 
contempt ? " And taking the trouble to add to this, in his neat old-time writing, a quota- 
tion of half a dozen lines from Pope, to the effect that " A wife is the peculiar gift 
of heaven." 

But it may be time to put a period to these specimens of what was considered, in those 
Lalla Rookh and bulbul days, the smart and flattering gallantry of an old, once graceful 
beau, toward a rosebud less ripe by some thirty years or so. Rosalie's documents have 
another side, showing Payne, the foot-ball of fortune, the wall-flower at life's festival whom 
success never joined and engaged for a dance, as a critic, a traveler, or a politician. 

In a letter of 1848 Payne remarks : " I am electioneering now on every side for an 
appointment under General Taylor." The consulship to Tunis, we know, was the plum 
he secured. In this strangely chosen post, the broken-down actor showed a little of 
the ostentation of a beggar on horseback. The Bey, quite terrified by his incessant 
and theatrical threats, — doubtless delivered with swelling eloquence borrowed from old 
recitations of Othello, — and not forgetting either the disquieting thought of the Admiral 
from America, Decatur, -truckled to him amusingly, and built him a huge new palace, 
finer than his own. Payne was forced to leave his romantic abode after a short resi- 
dence, and to come back to Washington, for the adjustment of certain political disputes ; 
these arranged, he returned to his post, and died directly in his palace in dream-land, 
April 9th, 1852. So short was his day of glory ! Only in 1850 we find in Rosalie's 
letters, "I am looking after my nomination for Tunis." This is in a missive from Wash- 
ington, where he also says, " Miss Bremer was here, and I saw her often," — mentioning 
Grace Greenwood too, and Anna C. Lynch, and Mrs. Southworth, whom he greatly 
admired. In 1848 he was in New York, while Macready was playing ; he probably felt 
some natural chagrin to find Macready applauded in Knowles' Virginius ; his own Vir- 
ginius — where the same plot had tempted the greatest actors, and been acclaimed from 
the same boards — forgotten. At any rate, he writes, coldly and weariedly : " The latest 
wonder here is Macready ; but I have not heard him. My interest in theatrical glories 
has subsided entirely." 

But the tone of fatigue never appears in his reminiscences of Easthampton j that 
magic name conjures up his spirits directly : the old neighbors, the old festivals, the old 
legends, — most sacred of all, to the exile, the old jokes. What can carry the absentee 
home so quickly as the ancient jest of his village — the well-worn, the oft-exploited, the 
never-failing ? Thus his pet name for Easthampton is " Goose-heaven," and he harps 
upon the idea eternally. 



34 CONCERNING THE HAMPTONS 

There was a side of superstition to the poor player's character — no uncommon thing 
in the profession. '' A conjuring letter," he says in 1848, "has prophesied most favor- 
able changes in my destir^, to commence next year. A pretty niece of Rosalie's apropos 
of this brought out an old-fashioned conjuring-book, quite large, and elaborately printed 
with pages of magic numbers, which was Payne's gift when he was alive and hoping for 
the turn of fortune. A blear-eyed, tottering old man, another relative, opened the wizard 
oages, and applied the numerical cards, as Payne in his youth had taught him, to the 
tabular prophecies. The tourists diligently came up in turn to have their destinies told. 
When he, with his palsied hands, succeeded in adjusting the cards to the mucli-promising 
tables, he looked up at his consulter, his eyes wide, watering and triumphant. Evidently, 
in his mind, he had made the fortunes of a whole troop of New York artists. 

The dark-veined hands of the ancient boatman turned the pages of Payne's wizard- 
book. Payne's little sweetheart, a handsome country lady, untied his yellow letters. 
The presence of the indigent player became very real in this atmosphere. 

" Mr. Payne used to say," observed Rosalie, " that he employed more intrigue to 
conceal his poverty than all the diplomacy used at Washington. I can remember him 
when he was a most beautiful man," she pursued, " and with such a complexion, very 
delicate. It is strange he should have liked me, for I was a black girl." 

This English phrase, perhaps, is seldom heard in America. But Rosalie had derived 
it direct from her Kentish ancestors. Her home-village had been settled by a party of 
Kentish pilgrims, who bought the town plot in 1648, and at first called it Maidstone, 
from Maidstone in Kent. The old families of Easthampton were of the Pilgrim stock, 
settling at first at Plymouth, but afterward removing to chosen spots along the Long 
Island shore, the Kentish group choosing this lovely retreat. Our tourists constantly 
heard old English phrases that struck them, and these would be delivered in a conspicu- 
ously New England accent and pronunciation. 

Gradually the feelings of the visitors changed toward the hymnist of Home. The 
image of a shapely, tall-foreheaded man began to haunt their imaginations, with sparse 
locks studiously arranged around his temples ; probably wearing corsets ; occasionally 
concealing the absence of buttons in his double-breasted coats by thrusting his hand in 
his bosom, Lamartine-fashion ; modish and dilapidated ; calling this populace of boat- 
men and fishmongers his cousins, his uncles and his comrades, without a bit of shame. 
Pacing this rural street " with his head down, so," its brain-pan revolving thoughts of 
past tinsel glories, when Kean had thrilled mighty London audiences with his Brutus, 
and Charles Kemble had gained two thousand pounds in twenty months by the copyright 
of a certain song in " Clari, or the Maid of Milan ! " 

Payne declared that he had first heard the tune of " Home, Sweet Home " from the 
lips of a Sicilian peasant girl, who sang it artlessly as she sold some sort of Italian wares, 
and touched his fine ear by the purity of her voice. It is pleasant to think he did not 
crib it from any old opera, but had a certain proprietorship in the air, as well as the 
words, of the most popular song extant. 

The " home " he was thinking of, as he traced the deathless lyric in some London 
rookery, was undoubtedly Easthampton. A few years later, he expanded its opening 
words in a magazine description of his native town. " Many an eye wearied with the 
glare of foreign grandeur," he wrote ("Democratic Review," February, 1838), "will, ere 
long, lull itself to repose in the quiet beauty of this village." The stenciled expressions 
of " foreign grandeur," and " eyes wearied with the glare," what are they but repetitions 
of the opening of both stanzas — the " pleasures and palaces " of stanza one, " the exile 



AND JOHN HOWARD PAYNE. 35 

from home splendor dazzles in vain," of stanza two ? Easthampton is what supplies the 
sentiment, the type, the foil, the contrast of the song. Easthampton still exists, just as 
he knew it, like a vignette perpetuated in electrotype. The " tavern-sign in the center 
of the road" is gone, though, which he described " swinging between the two posts," — 
"while the geese strut with slow and measured stateliness to their repose." The geese 
still parade down the grassy street, getting between the visitor's legs every minute, and 
are as obtrusive as they are in Payne's letters and descriptions. 

Yes — it is an unromantic discovery, but there cannot be a doubt of it — "the birds 
singing sweetly," of Payne's ballad, "that came at my call," were ganders, and their 
sweetness was a hiss. 

From the age of thirteen, when he left the ample hearth of his father's house here, 
the hymnist of " Home " was homeless ; that is, until the theatrical structure of his latter 
months arose at the command of the Afrites, and he lay down to die in his Arabian 
Night's palace, hungering for the thatch, '• the sooty chimney-throat of this delicious cot." 



ABOUT MONTAUK AND THE LAST 
OF THE MONTAUKETTS. 




ONTAUK has probably more of a romantic and poetic character than any other- 
part of the Island, and it undoubtedly possesses a greater picturesque interest 
than any portion of the Atlantic sea-coast line from Florida to Maine. This 
would appear to be hardly consistent with the comparative obscurity in which, 
it has so long remained, and the fact that very few tourists have found their way there. 
This must be attributed to the difficulty experienced in reaching Montauk, and to a 

certain extent to the limited accommodations to 
be found there. " Osborne's," " Stratton's," 
and the Lighthouse give very good accommoda- 
tions in their way, but their customers have 
chiefly been people who have gone down to 
shoot or fish. Camping parties from Connec- 
ticut and Rhode Island visit the Point by boats, 
put up their tents and indulge in an unlimited, 
fish and game regimen for weeks. In the sum- 
mer Montauk is delightful. The atmosphere is 
cool and not a fly or a mosquito is to be found. 
Plenty of the former pests are to be found upon 
Neapeague Beach, and which one has to drive 
to after leaving Narragansett. They are as bad 
there as in the traditional Louisiana Swamp, 
but as soon as the rising ground of Montauk is 
reached, they one and all completely disappear. 
Montauk resembles what in England are called 
" downs," and is one vast pasturage. It presents the appearance of a series of rolling hills 
all carpeted with rich grass, through which here and there gray boulders project, and varied 
by innumerable lakelets, some of which are of considerable extent, embracing many acres 
and being famous places for wild geese and trout. On the Sound side the shore is a gradual 
sandy slope, but on the Atlantic side it consists of abrupt and lofty cliffs of every variety 
of outline, and tenanted by countless colonies of martens, whose nests rude explorers 
find far too accessible and ruthlessly despoil. There is no place where the profitable 
occupation of day-dreaming can be better followed than about the tops of these cliffs^ 
where the grass is rich and the sea-breeze ceases never ; the great ocean beating; 

36 




KING SYLVESTER. 



ABOUT MO NT A UK. 



37 



hoarsely at one's feet, and the boulders and the shmgle of the beach ringing in incessant 
harmony with the rhythm of its songs. When the wind is fair an endless procession of 
white-sailed ships goes past, coming up over the horizon in the West or behind Block 
Island in the East, and disappearing dreamily as they came, like silent visions of the sea. 
Montauk is threatened with capital and a railroad and hotels and roads, but not all 
these toc^ether can ever quite efface its romance, and never its native beauty. 




MONTAUK LIGHTHOUSE. 



Of the remnant of the Indians that still remain at Montauk, Miss Young writes 
^.n Lippincott : 

" Here and there we pass a pond, and often startle the cattle that graze over the 
•greater part of Montauk ; and at length pause, spell-bound by the view from the hills 
looking down upon Fort Pond, or Kongonock. The road runs past its southern 
extremity, where, until the embankment was built, the ocean-surf frequently broke 



40 



ABOUT MONTAUK. 



by Whooping Boy's Hollow, is of darker omen still. The hero is the devil. At a " pow- 
wow," at which a renegade Puritan or two assisted, the devil was driven from the feast in 
time for the salvation of these white spectators' souls, and marked his horrid foot-print in 
his three several leaps ; whether cloven or not (the foot being presented simply in an 
Indian translation of the devil, as it were), the traces are hardly distinct enough to show. 
The youthful driver dutifully pointed out the Enchanted Cedar, and he knew all about 
Whooping Boy's Hollow. But his remembrance of the various indentations — sacliem's 




MOONLIGHT ON EASTHAMPTON BEACH. 

(^By kind permission of Messrs. Scribner b' Co.) 

head-rests, devil's prints, or what not — were all resolved into one legendary impression, 
of a painfully unpoetic character. 

"Old Teeny's Hole," said Tradition, in the person of this lad, "is here, just by Flat 
Top Tree ; it is a little before you get to the tree. Old people at Montauk remember 
Teeny. He was an Indian, and he fell down drunk here, and drownded in six inches of 
water." 

The carriages passed the long, close, thicket-bordered beach of Napeague, with its 



ABOUT MO NT A UK. 



41 



before them, Hither 




SCHOOL IN SIGHT. 



(/>_!' kind perviissicn of Messrs. Scribmr &" Co.) 



swarms of mosquitoes. To the left were the Nommonock liills 
"Wood. Emerging from the inclosed region 
and the pressure of damp, tropical vegeta- 
tion, our tourists came out upon a scene of 
freshness and uncontaminated splendor, such 
as they had no idea existed a hundred miles 
from New York. The woods rolled glori- 
ously over the hills, wild as those around 
the Scotch lakes ; noble amphitheaters of 
tree-tufted mountains, raked by roaring 
■winds, caught the changing light from a 
cloud-swept heaven ; all was pure nature, 
fresh from creation. The beach they skirted 
was wild and stern, with magnificent jDreci- 
pices. From the steep cliffs they often after- 
ward dug out the nests of the sand-martins, 
occasionally disclosing a delicate egg, or a 
timid fledgeling, lying perdu in his galleiy, 
two feet back from his little round vestibule. 
And so, resting alternately at " Ptratton's " 
and at the house of the light-keeper, they 
finally made the extremity of Montauk 
Point, and the great Fresnel lantern, against 
which the sea-birds and the giant dragon- 
flies often dash out their little lives. 

The convex table-land at Montauk Cape is set with two great, gem-like lakes, miles 
in extent, and named respectively Great Pond and Fort Pond. Fort Pond was the 
scene of a mighty battle in the Narragansetts' campaign against the Montauketts. The 
latter, staunch allies as they were of the neighboring white family of Gardiner, on 
the island of that name, were on the point of being beaten, and the Saxon settlers left 

to the cruelty of hos- 
tile tribes, when a 
friendly rally was 
made by the Fire 
Island Indians, who 
drove off the Narra- 
gansetts to their ca- 
noes. 

This friendly, and 
once-valorous Mon- 
tauk tribe is reduced 
to a pitiful handful. 
The tourists found 
them, however, still 
herding the cattle for 
their old neighbors of 
MONTAUK LIGHT. Easthampton, around 

{By kind permission of Messrs. Scribner ^ Co:) the frcsll banks of 




42 



ABOUT MO NT A UK. 



Kongonock Lake. The last king, Pharaoh, was dying in a wind-swept cabin, all alone 
by the pond-side. Our tourists invaded this royal residence. 

They thought little of the intrusion at first ; the majesty of Indian kingship does not 
produce unmixed awe. So they trooped up to the house of unpainted clapboards, under 
whose eaves salted eels, and cheguit or weak-fish, were fastened up to dry. " Queen 
Amelia," a pleasant-faced mulattress, was on her knees in the entry, scrubbing. To pass 
into the presence of the chief was no more than to step into the unfastened common- 
room. Here, on a clean bed, lay an invalid figure that compelled them to reverence. 

King David Pharaoh was lying as still as a marble image, on the outside of the bed- 
clothes ; only his eyes moved around, quick and brilliant. He had on a bright striped 
sporting-shirt ; his legs were stretched out parallel with each other ; seeming just 







FLAT TOP TREE. 

(^By kind pcrniissio.'i c/ Messrs. Scribner ^ Cs.) 



as thin as their bones, in the clean trowsers of jute bagging. His neat, small, archca 
feet were bare, pointing lightly to left and right. His hollow face was of pure Indian 
type, but reduced almost to a skull. There was a small looking-glass, with a picture 
painted in the upper part of the frame. A colored lithographic head of " Clara " (recall- 
ing, if you choose, the heroine of Payne's lyric) decorated a frame nearby, and there was 
another of a ship on fire. Over the dying man's head was a great colored lithographic 
broadside of cricketing costumes, pinned to the wall. 

The quietude, the ancestral type, of the moribund chief gave the intruders a shock,. 
and the faith in its own privacy promulgated by the vuiguarded sick-bed made them feel 
like brutes. Off went the hats, we remember, for the first thing. Then one or two drew 
to the bed-head, and opened a low-voiced conversation. Suffering reduces the distinc- 
tions of caste, and this composed sufferer seemed far the superior, at that moment, of 
any man in the room. 

The tourists thought of the extinction of the Montauks, and rather brutally asked 
King Pharaoh if he had children. He rolled his glittering eyes from one to another, and 
slowly delivered an answer fraught with the gloomy considerations that must have been 
occupying his life. 



ABOUT MO NT A UK. 



45 




^A"«if 



^;^:V:^ 



" Yes, yes. The boys don't all go out to 
sea. Some of them are left and get married. 
They'll keep us up a while longer." 

His voice here sank into an inaudible 
murmur ; but his self-possession remained. 
An eager artist had taken out a sketch-book. 

"Would you object to having your por- 
trait taken, for us to remember you by ? " 

The answer was a withering criticism on 
the work of some previous artist. 

"Yes," he drawled slowly (with his senile 
deliberation at the age of forty). " I wouldn't like to. 
There was an insulting sketch of me made some time ago. 
But there are all the photographs." 

And he looked toward the pictured group at the bed's foot, repre- 
senting himself and quadroon wife and several male children. 

It seemed to be a happy inspiration when somebody suggested a 
hymn. Two or three voices joined in a low litany, in Latin, and very 
beautiful. The man looked up when it was done, and said : 

"Thank you. But I don't understand it veiy well." 

Upon this the baritone singer of the party, the pet and flattered 
darling of them all for his consoling taleni, came gently forward. He 
had been retiring and invisible before, but now he came silently up to 
the pillow, and with an exquisite grace sang a religious anthem. He 
began in a low but controlled tone. The dying Indian looked startled 
at the thrilling music of the murmuring voice — a voice that has often 
held thronging congregations spell-bound with its solitary melody. The song was Faure's- 
"Les Rameaux." The expiring chief listened to the musical combinations invented 
by France's incomparable " Mephistopheles," her versatile " Masaniello," her sublime 
" Hamlet." Whatever of merely operatic or borrowed character the music might have 
inherited from Faure, it had nothing but sincerity in it now, sung in English, with, 
genuine and freshly-awakened feeling. As the " Rameaux " hymn proceeded to invoke- 
all heathen nations to swell the triumph of the Conqueror of Peace, the red child of 

these western isles raised his eyes, bright and 
liquid. The invocation to " Humanity" in Faure's- 
words was the first thing to attract his close atten- 
tion : 

" Around our way the palm-trees and the flowers 
Send forth their perfume on our festal day. 
His voice is heard, and nations at the sound 
Have now regained that freedom sought in vain ; 
Humanity shall everywhere abound, 
For light to all the world is given again." 

The propaganda of this world-compelling song: 
was probably never so exerted before. The In- 
dian, a man of no mean natural capacity, under- 
stood it, with a swift intuition. A soft choir joined 
STEPHEN, KING i.v POSSE. IxoTCs. thc othcr musicians at the triumphal refrain r 



.RECKLESS 
EXPLORATIONS. 

{JBy kind permission 

of Messrs. 

Scribner &' Co.) 




44 ABOUT MONTAUK. 

" Hosanna ! 

Glory to God ! 

Blessed is he who comes bearing Salvation !" 

It was music's invitation to those heathen proteges of Christianity whom Columbus 
found on our shores, and who have never since been joerfectly at one with our rehgion. 
Its significance was perfectly felt by the listener, and melody, by its own eloquence, was 
acting as no mean missionary. Few Christian churches, we fancy, have heard the song 
;sung with such breadth, nobility, and inspiration, as this lonely Indian on the windy, sea- 
washed moor. His eyes closed as the delicious persuasion concluded, and the visitors 
filed silently and respectfully out of his house. 

The king died a few days after the visit of the Tile Painters. His title was worn not 
quite in vain, since the tribe he governed have really a right of occupancy on their prom- 
ontory — a right which Judge Dykman decides must be looked upon as an incumbrance 
to real title. The late king expressed a wish to see Sag Harbor before he died, was 
driven thither while in an expiring state, and succumbed on his return that evening. His 
cousin, Stephen Pharaoh, the sportsman, soldier, and finest pedestrian on Long Island, 
succeeds him. 




IMPRESSIONS OF LONG ISLAND, BY AN " IMPRESSIONIST." 



THE SOUTH SIDE OF LONG ISLAND. 




Mr. William M. Tileston, who is one of the best writers that we have had upon field sports^ 
is kind enougli to contribute the following notes about the South Side of the Island : 

F there is any place on our coast which offers the same attractions to the sports- 
man, the tourist, or the summer visitor seeking amusement, as the South Side 
of Long Island, we have yet to find it. Its accessibility to New York the 
perfect healthfulness of its climate, and the variety of recreation offered ren- 
der it the most attractive of any spot we can call to mind. The Great South Bay, which 
is formed by the long strip of sandy beach stretching with but a single break for fifty or 
sixty miles, teems with fish and mollusks of every variety. Its waters, sheltered as they 
are, afford the finest imaginable sailing, and the myriads of boats which in summer dot 
its surface present a scene of life and gayety which cannot be equalled on our coast. Its- 
bathing facilities, both surf and still water, are unrivaled, as are also the drives on the 
main island. New Yorkers have for years appreciated the advantages of this favored- 
spot, and there are but few of the " old families " that have not residences in one locality 
or another. The summer resident is provided with a variety of amusements. If he is 
fond of sailing, there are the finest and safest boats in the world, with careful skippers^ 
who, passing their lives on the Bay, and following the avocations of oystermen or fisher- 
men at other seasons, are not only familiar with the management of their boats, but with 
the channels and tides. The fishing, particularly since the pound-nets have been abol- 
ished, is simply superb. The bluefish, the gamest of our salt-water fishes, come into the 
Bay in June, and remain all summer. It is now the custom to take them with rod and 
reel, by the mode known as " chumming," and during last season from seventy-five to one 
hundred fish was but an ordinary catch for one boat. These fish, to be sure, are com- 
paratively small, running to about three pounds weight, but the more adventurous 
fisherman who goes outside of Fire Island Inlet, and does not fear the swells of old 
dcean, may catch monsters weighing from ten to fifteen pounds. These large fish are 
also taken with the rod, and the sport is occasionally varied by hooking a shark. In July^ 
the summer flight of Bay birds commences, and the gunner comes in for his share of 
sport. These birds are particularly abundant along the shores of Shinnecock Bay, fur- 
ther to the eastward. 

Perhaps not the least attractive feature of the South Side of Long Island is the life 
and activity which prevails. At the various stations, on the arrival of the trains, the 
display of handsome carriages and fine horses awaiting their owners or visitors, cannot 
be excelled, and the friends who part at night are quite sure of meeting the next day at 



46 THE SOUTH SIDE OF LONG ISLAND. 

Fire Island or " Uncle Jesse's." For those who seek to enjoy the dolce far niente to the 
fullest extent, we can safely recommend this locality. There is a charm about its placid 
•waters, the deep booming of the surf as it breaks upon the distant sandy beach, the fleets 
of boats, whose white sails seem like flocks of sea-birds, all of which must be seen and 
felt to be appreciated. Nor do its attractions cease with the sununer months. As fall 
approaches, the oysterman commences to gather his harvest of the most luscious bivalves 
in the world. Great flocks of ducks and geese stop on their southern flight to fatten on 
the vast stores of their favorite food found on the numerous flats and bars. The broods 
of quails, now full-grown, pipe in the stubble-fields, and English snipe pause in their 
flight to feed on the meadows. Even the early spring has its attractions and temptations. 
The trout brooks of Long Island are famous the world over, and those emptying into the 
■Great South Bay are noted for the gameness and quality of their fish. Numerous clubs 
are here established, some of which are among the wealthiest and most influential in the 
■country, carefully preserving their many acres of land and water, and hatching and rear- 
ing their own trout. Go, then, the over- worked and weary, the victim of hay-fever or the 
ambitious sportsman ! Breathe the pure air which comes in health-laden breezes across 
the vast expanse of the Atlantic. Roll in the surf, or wander along the bright sandy 
TDcach or the shaded trout stream. You will find nowhere else such a combination as is 
offered by the " sea-girt shore " of Long Island. 



NOTES BY A SPORTSMAN 



FROM "FOREST AND STREAM.' 



\^-^ 


m 


n 



HE quiet beauty of the scenery beyond Riverhead would delight the eye of an 
artist, but to the man who loves to tramp with ready gun and watchful dog 
when the fields are brown in the autumn and the leaves fall gently through 
the still warm haze of Indian summer, all the latter part of the ride is 
attractive. He recalls the prairies as he glides across the level green plains of Hemp- 
stead, with its toy town of Garden City ; then great fields of buckwheat, white patches in 
the universal verdancy, remind him of how fond the quails are of buckwheat stubble, and 
he forms an unuttered hope that the reapers will not glean too closely. 

At Farmingdale begins a close heather of blackberry bushes, etc., and after a few 
miles of this, the road penetrates the boundary of that sterile and scrub-oak region which 
covers the whole interior of the island, and is not escaped this side of Yaphank station. 
The surface here is as level as a floor, and the trees as a rule are so scattered that you 
may look for miles ahead, while there is no such shadow as exists in a forest. Some- 
times only a little thin grass covers the ground and is carpeted by pine needles. But 
where oaks grow, the ground is likely to be concealed under a continuous chapparral of 
tangled vines, briers, saplings, and weeds knee-deep, which makes grouse shooting (or 
partridge shooting, as it is termed here), fatiguing and somewhat dangerous sport, since 
the feet are not free to take the quick steps and sudden turns often demanded when a 
grouse is flushed. The range of pretty hills to the northward of the line of the road, 
known as the " Spina," used to be, and still is, a famous place for ruffed grouse. 

It was in this diy, open countiy, where the berries and small acorns which it loved so 
well were to be found in abundance, that a century ago the pinnated grouse resorted in 
plentiful flocks, rearing their young all over this central part of the Island. It was known 
to the pioneers as the " heath hen," and they pursued it so recklessly that as long ago as 
1840, Geraud could find no trace of its presence, and put it down in his "Birds of Long 
Island " as extinct. If introduced once more, and protected, no doubt the prairie 
chicken would thrive well and increase fast on their ancestral uplands. At Yaphank, the 
eye is attracted by a stream which the train shoots over, and which flows through a canyon 
of vegetation, as it were, the trees and bushes growing so directly from the water's edge 
that no bank can be seen at all. " Trout inhabit that stream " is the mental comment as 
we rush by. There is no doubt that they do, for we know that some of the best trout 
ponds on the south side are fed by its waters. For some miles now the region becomes 
thickly wooded and swampy, black isolated tarns gleaming among the trees, out of which 
perhaps a startled bittern will rise on heavy wings and flap away in silence. 



48 NOTES BY A SPORTSMAN. 

Riverhead passed, you come to the shores of Peconic Bay and the region for fall 
duck shooting. Spring duck shooting does not amount to much here, but in the fall and 
early winter prime sport may be had. In eacli of the little half-farming, half-fishing; 
villages along the shore of the bay, there are some one or two gentlemen who shoot more. 
or less, and who own creditable dogs ; but the metropolis of the gunning, as of all , other 
interests in this region, is Greenport, the terminus of the Long Island Railroad. 

It was my good fortune there to make the acquaintance of several gentlemen fond of 
the gun and skillful in its use, who kindly posted me as to the prospects for good gunning 
in their vicinity during the coming autumn, and the best localities to be chosen by one 
wishing to make good bags in sportsman-like fashion. 

Mr. Burt Clark, who may be spoken of (without prejudice to his comrades) as proba- 
bly the most thorough sportsman in the place, says he has not known for many years 
woodcock so plenty as they were in this region last summer. Just before the 4th of July 
one man "dug up" six in a clump on Shelter Island, and Mr. Clark thought that even 
now, if one was to search especially for them, he could find forty in a single day's 
tramping. 

There is no good fall woodcock shooting in Suffolk County, and if summer shooting 
were abolished, the effect would be to stop the sport altogether ; still, a two weeks' later 
opening of the lawful season would probably be an improvement. Some parts of the 
south side of Peconic Bay afford good woodcock ground — the outskirts of East Hampton,, 
for example — and Montauk Point is represented as the " boss " spot of all, as well as for 
all sorts of snipe and plover. Greenport's " stronghold " is quail shooting. Besides Mr. 
Burt Clark and his brother John, there may be mentioned several others who are good 
shots, among them Mr. Clark, Sr., father of the two gentlemen alluded to above, John 
Gechring, Captain Austin Bennett of the yacht "Arrow," W. W. Reeve, Ferdinand 
Heizeman, Elliott Wiggins, and H. W. Halsey. At Mattituck, Ed. Betts shoots for 
market, getting, it is said, two hundred quail last fall ; and at Baiting Hollow, Wm. 
Young has the reputation of being the best shot. 

The farmers are disposed to make no objections to persons lawfully shooting on their 
lands, if they are well behaved and careful not to do mischief to fences or wound any of 
the valuable live-stock, of which a large amount is owned in the county. 

Greenport sportsmen need not go far, but usually tramp eastward, the country there 
being more adapted to the birds and at the same time easier to shoot over. Strangers 
coming would do well to follow their example. In Oshmamomock — the neighboring 
township northwesterly — the outskirts of Dismal Swamp and Brown's Meadows are good 
localities ; also Queen Street, Silver Lake, Long Pond, Anderson's, Paul Brennan's, and 
Conklin's lands, and the neighborhood of the crossings. In East Marion, in the oppo- 
site direction, D. G. Floyd's land, Sexet Pond, East Marion Lake, Birch Pond, and 
Gardiner's Island. Montauk and outskirts of Sag Harbor also afford good shooting for 
quail, which are already piping loud and clear from the stone walls. For grouse shoot- 
ing, the sportsman must go to the southern peninsula, or else some dozen or eighty miles 
west of Greenport. 

Just around here there are enough grouse to make good sport. Southeastward from 
Riverhead, however, they are said to be plenty. I mention, " en passant,'' Mr. Clark's 
valuable outfit of apparatus for ducking and sniping — batteries, boats* decoys, stools of 
artistic make and endless quantity, and the various other accoutrements of an enthusias- 
tic sportsman. Having thus given the information likely to be of interest and value to 
sportsmen who are seeking a good place for game during the autumn, concerning the 



NOTES BY A SPORTSMAN. 49 

claims of the eastern end of Long Island to notice, only one thing remains to be noticed 
— lodging facilities. This is a matter of too much importance to be ignored. The most 
ardent and strong-legged sportsman gets tired and hungry ; where he can best overcome 
both these sad concomitants of a day's shooting is important for him to know. 

All these villages have good taverns. It is hard to choose between them. I should 
say : " Avoid the ' summer ' hotels." The best place undoubtedly here in Greenport 
(which is likely to be the visiting sportsmen's headquarters) is the Wyandank Hotel. 
I speak from varied experience. Though Charlie \\'right may not have time to carry the 
gun a great deal, both he and the amiable " Mrs. Charlie " know how to take care of 
those who shoot. 



LONG BEACH. 



The singular adaptability of Long Beach for the purposes of a watering-place way 
only discovered in the summer of 1879. It is one of the chain of beaches of the south- 
side of Long Island, of which heretofore public knowledge has been confined to Coney- 
Island, Rockaway and Fire Island. It was inaccessible, except by small boats, being an 
island reached only by the tortuous channels of Hempstead Bay and the contiguous waters, 
and it was rarely visited by other than gunners, fishermen and wreckers. During the latter 
part of the summer of 1879 it was visited with a view to determining its possible avail- 
ability for improvement, and its extraordinary advantages were then, for the first time,, 
appreciated. 

It contains about 1,800 acres, and its frontage on the Atlantic Ocean is nearly seven 
miles in a straight line of gently-sloping beach of hard-packed sand, as smooth and even in its 
contour as a floor of asphalt, and equally agreeable for walking or driving. The only 
refuse that s ever found upon it is wreckage and the drift from the Gulf Stream, consisting, 
of palmettos, sugar canes, cocoanuts, and the tropical debris brought north by that current 
from the Gulf of Mexico. No New York refuse and waste, so offensive elsewhere on the 
coast, ever reaches Long Beach, which, in that respect, is absolutely clean and undefiled. 

•It more nearly resembles the celebrated beach at Cape May than any other; but it 
has the advantage as a bathing-beach of having no undertow and being perfectly safe. The 
sand shelves gently out, so that six feet of water are reached at a distance of about 500' 
feet. The current is at all times steadily to the westward on both the incoming and the 
outgoing tides. No other beach ever opened to the public at all compares in its beauty or 
its natural advantages with Long Beach; and the magnificent surf line of nearly seven 
miles, the elevation of its building sites, the mingled seclusion and exclusion of its position,, 
make it, perhaps, the finest natural location of a watering-place that there is in the world. 

Under the auspices of the Long Beach Improvement Company, Long Beach is now 
reached in thirty-five minutes from Hunter's Point by the trains of the Long Island Rail- 
road Company, the distance from Hunter's Point to the hotel of the Company being twenty- 
two miles, and the service being performed by first-class expresses, with commodious and 
comfortable passenger-coaches, Pullman palace-cars and private special drawing-room cars, 
for the use of clubs and parties. The road is a double track of the heaviest steel-rails, 
the whole way thoroughly ballasted, and the administration is of the most perfect known 
to the art of railroad management. The employees have all been rigorously tested for color- 
blindness, the most approved brakes, the Westinghouse, are used, steel patent interlock- 
ing switches, so that accidents at switches are almost absolutely impossible, and every pre- 
caution and device for assuring safety and speed has been availed of and adopted. 

From Pier 17, East River, adjoining the foot of Wall Street, fast boats will run in 15 
minutes to Hunter's Point, connecting with all express trains for Long Beach, and making 
the actual time from Wall Street to the hotel 50 minutes. The depot at Hunter's Point 
will be so arranged for the summer of 1880 that the boats will land their passengers 



LONG BEACH, 51 

alongside the outgoing and incoming trains ; and as tickets will be sold on the boats as 
well as at all the ferries and ofifices, passengers will be subjected to no delays or incon- 
veniences of any kind. The other ferries to Hunter's Point are from 34th Street, East, 
7th Street and James Slip, near the Brooklyn Bridge. The New York Elevated Railroad 
has a branch in operation now to the East 34th Street ferry, which will be run with special 
reference to Long Beach trains, and afford rapid transit to all parts of the city. 

The general scheme of the improvements at Long Beach, for this year, is briefly 
stated: A capacious hotel, a series of bath-houses, with grand stand, giving those not 
inclined to bathe a pleasant shaded seat, with full view of the shore, surf and bathers, 
and a colony of picturesque cottages with everything, both in detail and decoration, that 
can make them delightful summer homes. Of the large Hotel : — the railroad runs along 
the entire north side, close under the north porch of the building, which is, in round 
numbers, goo feet long and 150 wide, with a space around the entire structure 25 feet 
wide, devoted to porch, and the remainder containing the restaurants, cafes, bars and 
wine-rooms, corridors, lavatories, offices, retiring-rooms and everything necessary for 
the most perfect comfort and elegant leisure. These arrangements are effected by a 
system of geometrical equivalents. The whole of the first floor is of wood, with decorated 
po3ts supporting the girders of second floor at regular longitudinal and transverse dis- 
tances, and upon the lines of these posts abut the partitions that divide off the spades. 
Thus, immediately at the centre of the building is the great refreshment-room, 175x80 
feet, and on each side are two corridors, each 50 feet wide, running across the building from 
north to south ; another corridor, 50 feet wide, runs along the centre, crossing these two, 
and communicating with the cafe on the east, and the restaurant on the west: these two 
take up the entire respective ends of the building. Across the centre corridor, on the south, 
are the directors' and booking offices, and the ladies' retiring-rooms. From these corridors 
the gentlemen's lavatories, cloak rooms, ticket offices, a large billiard room, a smaller 
wine cafe, several private dining-rooms, with varying capacities, for greater or less parties, 
and all the serving rooms necessary to wait upon and serve 5,000 people, all hungry, and 
clamoring to be waited upon at the same time. Around the cafd and restaurant are 
porches 50 feet wide, and separated by folding glass partitions, so that they can be made 
as one at a moment's notice; and generally, wherever it is found convenient to do so, these 
folding glass partitions are used in preference to stationary walls. So it can be readily 
imagined what an effect of airiness and lightness is thus gained. Beside these accommoda- 
tions on the first floor, there is a terrace 30 feet wide running around the south, east and 
west sides, and, being only three feet lower than first-floor level, gives a magnificent 
promenade. In the basement are the working departments. In the centre, grouped 
around a great brick shaft 25 x 20 feet and 90 feet high, are all the kitchens, laundries 
and the offices calculated in any way to create either heat or odor. At the base of the 
shaft will stand the fans, driven by steam power from the engine-room, to bring in the 
fresh air, and send the foul up the shaft at once. This part of the building will be per- 
fect, all the offices being arranged to be absolutely convenient, economical, -and perfectly 
under control. To add to the working convenience, a track enters the building at the 
northwest corner, and, running under the north porch, distributes all the supplies at 
their various headquarters. The ice, meat, vegetables, milk, beer, fuel — everything has 
its allotted space, where coolness, cleanliness and ventilation prevail. Directly down 
the long axis of the basement runs an unobstructed corridor, 40 feet wide; on its north 
side are the above departments, on the soulh are servants' bedrooms, servants' halls, and 
some of the lesser offices. This corridor is lit by electric light, and forms the great venti- 



52 LONG BEACH. 

lating trunk for keeping the whole basement fresh and pure. These two floors are devoted 
entirely to the taking care of the great bulk of the public. The second floor is reached 
by flights of stairs 20 feet broad, and has a porch 20 to 25 feet wide, running, as on the 
first floor, entirely around it ; only, the building at this level narrows in by the width of 
the porch of first floor. We have here on the second floor, in the east end, parlors, dining- 
■ rooms, and public rooms for the guests of the hotel, and in the west wing select parlors and 
sleeping-rooms. The third floor is the size of the second floor, less the porches, and con- 
tains sleeping-rooms, baths and lavatories, and just over the centre of the main gable and 
looking out to sea, are two or three snug little parlors shielded by a loggia along the front, 
and forming pleasant reception quarters for those wishing to avoid the bustle below. The 
fourth floor is entirely a chamber floor. There are thus, to recapitulate, on first floor, 
accommodations for at least 5,000 persons at once; and on second, third, and fourth floors 
about 300 bedrooms, with the necessary parlors, dining-rooms and accessories for serving 
them without regard to the service below. 

Architecturally, the building is a simple and quiet rendering of the so-called Queen 
Anne, with low roofs and projecting gables, running up, with half-timberings and shingled 
spandrils. The roofs, gables, tower and curtain-walls will be covered with California 
redwood shingles, nearly a million of them being required. The timbering work and the 
curtain- walls will be brought out in dark green and dead gold tones, and great care will 
be bestowed upon the harmony of the painting of the exterior. Upon the whole structure 
nothing has been done for effect, for its own sake, the details of the whole being arranged 
with entire reference to the demands of the plans of the various floors. The result is, that, 
false novelty being discarded, a dignified, elegant, and purely architectural building is the 
result. 

There are two elevators in the building of the most commodious and approved pat- 
tern, and affording easy access to the different floors of the Hotel for its guests. These 
have been supplied in deference to an often expressed want of a great number, to whom 
the absence of elevators in the seaside hotels has been a great source of inconvenience. 

Directly in front of the Hotel will be a large Music Stand, built, though, upon 
principles of unobstruction. The Long Beach Music Pavilion will be a light, quiet frame 
affair, ample for its purpose, but so arranged that, when the Band plays, its outer sides, 
by the lowering of light-sounding curtains, have all the elements necessary for reflecting 
the sound back upon the audience on the terrace and porches. 

Westward, down the beach, are the Bath-Houses. There are 250 special rooms for 
the guests of the Hotel, about 550 public ones, and about 200 additional ones for ladies 
exclusively. These houses will be arranged in rows under sheds and raised on piles about 
ten feet above the level of the beach. On the ocean side the whole will be flanked by a 
broad, overhanging Grand Stand, capable of accommodating large numbers for viewing 
the bathing. On the land side of the bath-houses are all the offices necessary for keeping, 
cleaning, and drying the bathing-suits, etc., etc. At the heads of passage-ways, between 
the rows of bath-houses, are flights of steps leading down under the Grand Stand to the 
beach below. Thus the bather reaches and leaves the beach without running the gauntlet 
of too inquisitive eyes. 

Another feature of the bathing department is a big fresh-water shower, set up in each 
section, and ample for giving every one, before he returns to his quarters, a good fresh- 
water douche. 

The drive on the beach, already alluded to, and nearly seven miles in length, is not 



LONG BEACH. 53 

equalled at any other watering place, not excepting either Newport or Long Branch. 
A large and first-class livery establishment with ample stock of carriages, and supplying 
permanent and transient boarding for horses of residents, will afford every facility for its 
enjoyment. Besides, the country back of Long Beach will be accessible by a broad 
boulevard, and Long Island roads are celebrated for driving purposes. 

Perhaps one of the chief features of the enterprise, and the most interesting aspect 
that it possesses for the general public, lies in the direction of its development and the 
character to be imparted to it. It is all owned by the Long Beach Improvement Com- 
pany, who will naturally control the changes that are to be effected in it. Instead of being 
given over to bars and restaurants and cheap entertainments, as has been familiarly the 
case with other beaches whose development has been of a haphazard nature, the build- 
ings on Long Beach shall be wholly of residences of the better class, and their necessary 
offices, stables, etc. With nearly seven miles of fronta'^e on the Atlantic, and a location 
unsurpassed for healthfulness, delightful in its exposure to the prevailing summer breezes, 
which vary from southeast to southwest, plentifully supplied with the purest fresh 
water, Long Beach possesses advantages and offers inducements that no other locality on 
the whole Atlantic coast enjoys. Easily within an hour's time of any part of New York 
City, it is admirably suited to the convenience of business men. If there are any advan- 
tages of proximity to the metropolis Long Beach has them in the fullest degree. The 
social aspect of Long Beach is an all important feature of its development, it being 
the firm conviction of the projectors of the enterprise that, in maintaining the standard 
they now have in view, the enduring prosperity of the enterprise in chief part lies. 



SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES. 




HAT charming and popular writer and correspondent, Miss Jennie J. Young, 
and some others, have furnished such particulars of other points of interest 
as are appended. They convey very pleasantly the general aspect of the 
places that most interest summer visitors, and a good deal of the sort of 
information that strangers to the island chiefly require. 



BELLPORT. 

It is long since the opinion was given to the world that there was nothing beyond 
Patchoo-ue but a sandy barren desert, left unfinished by the Creator and abhorred of man. 
Like a good many other opinions, it gained credence because it was couched in terms 
that bore a faint flavor of humor. In point of truth, it is simply absurd. It must be 
admitted that at Patchogue, four miles to the west of this place, the traveler by rail is not 




likely as he steps from the cars to find his thoughts turning toward Sharon or Eden, or 
the other representatives of classic fertility. He will more probably feel like a lesser 
Stanley on the border of a Sahara. There is a superabundance of sand. The train 
dumps its passengers into a sand-bank, and then, with a fiendish shriek of delight, crawls 
away from the platform to contemplate their misery. If faint-hearted, the visitor might 
at once busy himself finding out the times of departure of the westward cars, were he not 
interested in the disposal of his companions. They move about joyously, though some- 



SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES . 



55 



times ankle-deep in sand. Stage after stage rolls away from the depot, and every one is 
full to overflowing. "There must be something beyond," thinks he, as the sand from 
the horses' feet falls upon him in a shower, " some oasis in the desert, some lovely place 
that derives its beauty from its contrast with the barrenness surrounding it." With this 
reflection, the explorer takes his place in one of the few remaining vehicles, and is soon 
whirling along the road to East Patchogue and Bellport. Discouragement evaporates, 
and the spirits rise at every turn. 

No mirage was ever more deceitful than was Patchogue Station to what lies beyond. 
After the first mile, fate is accepted without a murmur ; after the second, there comes 
•enchanting peeps at pretty inland waters, and through lines of trees at a rolling, culti- 
"vated country on either side ; after the third, sand-hills are forgotten, and dismal fore- 
bodings have vanished, leaving no trace behind. At Bellport, one thinks of Wordsworth's 
"Earth has something yet to show." The village proper is about half a mile from the 




j/V-rpn^- 



INTHg HlTHtR W8IS& iAfimKXvC) 



beach, where the more agreeable places of residence are to be found. From this place, 
at the head of Bellport Bay, the swish of the water rippling upon the shore about eighty 
yards distant can be heard all day long. A group of children are busy digging wells in 
the sand, and a few bathers are disporting themselves in the brine. The view from the 
upper windows toward the south and east is very beautiful. The Great South Bay is here 
about four miles wide, and the Great South Beach forms the line on the southern horizon. 
To the east the shore stretches' southward, and a broad promontory divides the Great 
South from the East Bay. This promontory is one of the most richly-timbered districts 
•on the island, and is held by five or six proprietors, amongst whom its 10,000 acres are 
divided. From my present point of view, the shore seems to be broken up into small 
•coves, and the land is covered with woods. To the southwest stretch the waters of the 
Bay, dotted with cat-boats and yachts, and round a headland on the west lies Patchogue. 
In every direction the prospect is picturesque and pleasing, and the means of enjoyment 
are abundant. Bellport, though not very generally known, is liberally patronized by 



56 



SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES. 



visitors from all parts of the United States and Canada. The story of its first settlement 
is interesting, as conveying a hint of the beauty of its location. 

About sixty-five years ago, a Mr. Thomas Bell, then in the employ of the American 
Coast Wrecking Company, was sent to the wreck of a vessel called the Irene. In the 
fulfilment of his mission, he was first led to the site of the present village. Afterwards, 
when in quest of place for permanent residence, he came east from Islip, and returning 







to the point which had first attracted him, he came here,- and called the place after him- 
self, Bellport. How much there is to justify his choice, I have already shown. Since 
then, the place has grown slowly but steadily, and will probably come to the front in point 
of importance, when the railway is finished through from Patchogue to Moriches, on the 
Sag Harbor branch of the main line. The summer visitors appear to represent every 
grade, with the exception of the ultra-fashionable. Every one is at ease with his neigh- 
bor, and all are apparently at ease with the world. This implies a generally comfortable 
view of affairs at large, and such an absence of exclusiveness as permits of a moderately 



SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES. 57 

restricted intercourse. The society is therefore the best possible to get along with, and 
has no leaning towards fashionable rusticity. The word " general " implies exceptions^ 
and such may of course be found at Bellport. There are women who cannot, by any 
effort, resign their places in belledom and take to rural simplicity. There are men who 
carry " the world " with them into the temple. The latter at the sea-side are a study — 
for the sake of amusement, if not of profit. He loves himself with a love surpassing the 
love of woman, and walks the piazzas the conscious cynosure- of all eyes. As the fresh 
morning breeze pipes sweet music to the wavelets of the bay, he hies him on board a 
skiff and sails to the outer beach, where, clad in snowy white, with patent leather and 
cloth extensions, he listens to the majestic roar of the ocean. There he alone feels the 
greatness of man, and a proper contempt for washing and shoemakers' bills. Or, per- 
haps, his thoughts are turned toward death — the death of the tilt-ups and meadow-larks. 
In that case, he robes himself in the habiliments of Nimrod — brown velveteen coat and 
becoming inexpressibles. He shoulders his gun and adjusts his cartridge-belt, and 
marches off to the boat in which he means to sail for the bloodless field. - Speaking froia 
the birds' point of view, 

" Woe is written on his visage, 
Death is looking from his face." 

He returns, and a glance shows that the soaring sea-gull has fallen before the flash of his 
unerring weapon — dropped on the ocean waves in quest of fish — and that the fluttering 
bobolink has been left to die in its tracks. In other words, his bag is empty, his manly 
fingers are unsoiled, and his dress has all its pristine freshness. At supper, he eats with 
modesty, and handles his knife and fork with a grace begotten of long and loving famil- 
iarity. The velveteen has been replaced by appropriate black, and his broad shoulders 
look broader still under liberal tailors' epaulets. 

A few years ago, there were people to be seen who found a little money so great a 
novelty that they could not even for a brief season retire from the new way of life which 
it had opened to them. The greater and better part of them are beginning to feel the 
irksomeness of social harness, and are glad of a respite in summer. The minority carry 
with them the lares and pennies of their city homes, and have nothing else to which to pay 
their devotions. At Bellport, these are as much out of place as a whale at Montauk. 

For sailing and fishing parties, the entire expanse of the Great South Bay is opea 
from Moriches to Fire Island. 

There are, I fancy, a few who have no wish to give publicity to its many charms. 
These are the monopolists, who are fond of exclusive seclusion, and abhor the invasion 
of a horde of pleasure-seekers as farmers abhor the advance of the Colorado beetle. 
They long to get away from the " steamship and railway, and the thoughts that shake 
mankind," from the phonograph, the telephone, the telegraph, and magnify all the advan- 
tages of Bellport because it is beyond the railway system. But that a place with the most 
perfect water facilities on Long Island should be left comparatively unknown is a crime 
too monstrous to be tolerated. 



58 



SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES. 



BABYLON AND GREAT SOUTH BAY. 

There is no more delightful, salubrious, or generally attractive spot within a hundred 
miles of New York than Babylon, and the region that lies all about it on the south side 
•of Long Island. It is strange that there should be at a distance of but forty miles from 
the great metropolis a place so thoroughly untamed and unspoiled and so fresh and 
.charming in its pristine attractiveness. It has all the advantages of forest upland and 
open meadow, combined with the fresh salt air and cooling breezes of the seacoast. 

One is never out of hearing of the surges on Fire Island, or of the thundering surf 
that rolls in upon Great South Beach. For the purpose of the sportsman, it is at all 
reasons unrivalled, and the variety of game to be found upon its shores and in its waters 
is simply astonishing. 

The numerous streams that empty into Great South Bay, and the ponds that they run 
through, have made Long Island famous for its trout, and their numbers, size, and 
l)eauty. 




^cipaj^^^^g 



L^ - ■ 'f^ntejtriCio, 



The richness of their food, and the fact that they have constant access to salt water, 
liave contributed greatly to their fine quality. Other fresh-water fish there are in abun- 
dance, but the waters of the Bay itself teem with every salt-water variety. 

There is no such place on the Atlantic coast for blue-fishing as Fire Island Inlet, and 
no safer boats to fish from or sail in than the commodious and well-known cat-boats. 

Every visitor that may come is sure of good fishing ; the facilities for it are unlimited, 
and the fish themselves inexhaustible. 

The shooting is excellent. In the season. Great South Bay abounds in geese, brant, 
canvas-back, broad-bills, red-heads, black-heads, mallards, and other ducks. 

Along the Beach there are snipe, tern, and curlew ; and inland, quail, partridge, and 
grouse. There are also deer, of which there promises at no distant day to be abundant 
shooting, in consequence of recent and wise legislation looking to their protection. The 



SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES. 59 

bathing and boating during the season cannot anywhere be surpassed. For those who 
like the surf, there is Fire Island beach, with its smooth expanse of yellow sand ; and for 
those who prefer still water, there is the unruffled tide of the Great South Bay. 

In the summer time, the wind varies from south to southeast, blowing in steadily from 
the ocean, and insuring even in seasons of the greatest heat a delightful temperature both 
day and night. 

The new management and reorganized system of the Long Island Railroad and leased 
lines enables one to reach Babylon by the regular trains in one hour. 



RONKONKOMA. 

As the cars draw up to the depot at Lakeland, the tourist, who has most probably 
•enjoyed his two hours' ride from New York, looks eagerly from his wiixlow for the first 
jglimpse of the lake. He looks in all likelihood with some anxiety, as upon that glimpse 
he naturally thinks the success of his excursion depends. He is inclined to trust to first 
impressions, and feels that the sum total of his pleasure or disappointment is at stake. 
He withdraws his head in dissatisfaction. It is not, however, that his anticipations of 
the lake are not realized, but simply that he has not seen it. All that has met his 
anxious view are a rather prosaic-looking depot, a country store, a hotel and its perti- 
nents, and a few of the countrymen who appear to be in want at every stopping-place. 

The latter our traveler thinks he has seen before. Surely he saw them at Central 
Islip, Brentwood, at Deer Park and Farmingdale, and are they not the same he met last 
year at Stony Brook, and the year before at Blue Point.? He mistakes their t}^pical 
■character for ubiquity, but hails them as the living assurances that he has indeed made 
his escape from the city, and is once more in the country. 

There is, firstly, the stout, elderly man with the knotty stick, who runs in a modest 
way the hotel near by. There is the tall, sandy-whiskered countryman, with a liberal 
thatch of straw, embroidered and lank, the most ardent disciple of Do-nothingism in the 
township. There is the raw lad, of immature proportions, who is in charge of a span of 
sorrels and a rusty wagon '• after the antique. " There are, besides, one or two gentle- 
men from the city, who lounge about, in evident enjoyment of their freedom, and who 
"have just been long enough in the country to regard the arrival of a train as something 
of an event. 

Our traveler regards them all as old friends, and then turns northwards to the woods. 
To his eye they are full of unknown possibilities, for nestling somewhere in their balmy 
embrace is the lake of which he is in quest. A short and beautiful drive of about a mile 
Ijrings him to a point at which, gleaming through the trees, the sheen of Ronkonkoma 
meets his eager eye. The lake, which still retains its Indian name — meaning, most un- 
poetically. Sand Pond — is about forty-eight miles from New York, and lies in the midst 
of a country of surpassing beaut}-. Looking at it from any point of view, the question 
most likely to occur is the old one, " What's in a name ? " There is little to suggest 
Sand Pond as a distinctive name but a small sandy tract at the lower or southern end, 
and a narrow belt dividing the lake at the north from a charming little pond dotted with 
Avater-lilies. On the east and west the water is alternately pebbles and sand, and above 
are high banks, covered with shady trees. 

The lake is small, not being more than a mile in diameter, but its situation and sur- 



6o 



SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES. 



roundings make it a veritable diamond among lakes. If we return to the point at which 
it first bursts upon the traveler from the south, and follow the road northward along the 
eastern side, a succession of lovely views will be our reward. The road rises and falls 
with the undulations of the country, and at no point passes out of view of the lake. A. 
few houses and a church on our right show that although to the traveling world at large 
Ronkonkoma is a name unknown, there are some who have sought out and appreciated 
its unobtrusive beauty. There is one bluff, about midway between its two extremities, 

from which the sun may at times be seen 
setting in a splendor almost unequalled. 
The sky above is bright and clear, and 
as the horizon is neared, there appears 
tints of yellow, bright brass, shining gold, 
copper, and dark gray flecked with crim- 
son, until at last the horizon appears to 
mingle with the earth. The effect upon 
the lake is superb, almost unearthly. 

The woods and their shadow in the 
lake compose a broad, heavy border, 
which becomes partly luminous toward 
its outer edge, where again the crimson 
flecks of the clouds are reproduced with 
preternatural fidelity. Nearer come the 
copper and golden tints, and nearer still 
the beams of the sun gild the reflected 
sky of deepened blue. 

At such a time the lake mirrors the 
beauty of the sky ; at others, its fascina- 
tions are more perfectly its own. The 
view just described is at midday no less 
attractive. The surface of the water is 
generally fanned by a light breeze, and 
the gleam of a white sail here and there 
enlivens and gives variety to the scene. 
The fringe of trees produces a sense of 
seclusion to the jaded citizen of Gotham, 
and forms a beautiful setting to the 
cn,'stal lake. 
Passing round by the north and down the western side, there is not a point at which 
some new beauty does not disclose itself. 

And now as to the salubrity and character of the vicinity. When it is said that the 
lake is over fifty feet above the sea, and that it lies, as we have seen, deep set in the 
landscape, it will be inferred that the air cannot be other than fresh and invigorating. 
A very brief residence confirms this deduction. Not only is the neighborhood healthy, 
in the sense of being free from any kind of sickness, malarial or otherwise, but it is a 
place in which faded energy is speedily revived. 

The bathing is excellent, the gradually shelving pebbly beach making it both pleasant 
and safe. The fishing is abundant, the varieties of fish being numerous, and the supply 
inexhaustible. The adjacent country abounds in game, and the lake is a favorite resort 




SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES. 6i 

of water-fowl of all kinds. There are both row and sail boats, and accidents have been 
so extremely rare, that it may be said they would never happen if the most ordinar}'^ skill 
or -care were displayed. There is not a dull or uninteresting road in the neighborhood, 
and driving is therefore never wearisome. 

The country on all sides is of a pleasant undulating character ; and hidden away from 
the glance of a chance visitor without a taste for exploration are numberless nooks that 
are all but perfect in their rural beauty. With this enumeration of the . natural advan- 
tages of Ronkonkoma and the district surrounding it, our attention may now be allowed 
to rest for a space upon the permanent residents of the place. As to the Aboriginal 
population, it may be premised that no remnant exists. The last of the Indians was 
Jim Cuturus — may his shade look down forgivingly if his earthly patronymic be mis- 
spelt. Jim was known as a rather high-handed gentleman, and his society was not 
sought with much assiduity. Between thirty and forty years ago he fell ignominiously 
in coniiict with a negro at Stony Brook, who resented his intrusion. The only local 
mementoes of the noble Red, are arrow-heads made of white quartzose stone of great 
hardness. They have been found in great numbers to the east of the lake. 

In many places on Long Island a marked conservatism is noticeable in regard to 
locality. The true Long Islander does not care to wander from the spot where his 
forefathers settled, and it often happens that houses and farms have been handed down 
for several generations from father to son. Names are thus perpetuated and become 
associated in the history of the districts in which they occur. One house is pointed out 
here that was built a century and a half ago, and is now occupied by a descendant of 
its first owner. Branches of the same family occur in several places in the district, 
and through it and its off-shoots ever^-body appears to be related to everybody else. It 
must not, therefore, be supposed that I am writing of a country newly opened up. 
It has been settled for nigh two hundred years, and considering the beauty of the 
place, it seems absurd that, in this year of grace, ninety-nine out of every hundred New 
Yorkers, if asked about Lake Ronkonkoma, would say they never heard of it. 



SOUTHAMPTON. 

Southampton is verily a patriarch among the villages of Long Island, for it was here, 
238 years ago, that a few adventurous emigrants from Massachusetts founded the first 
English settlement in the State of New York. They came on a day in June, when the 
prospect, if a little wilder, was probably as fair as it is to-day. Expelled from Manhasset 
by the Dutch, and having sailed around Orient Point and up Peconic Bay until they 
arrived at a point now called North Sea, they marched south through the woods until they 
reached a suitable place for a settlement. Probably it appeared to them after their wan- 
derings, and in spite of their knowledge of Indian neighbors on either hand, " fair as the 
garden of the Lord." In any case here, or rather about three-quarters of a mile from 
the present village, they determined to settle. It may seem strange, but no sweeping 
change has since then passed over the place. Still, 

" Science herself here seems to sleep. 
Wrapped in a slumber long and deep." 

A few relics of the olden time yet remain, and others were only recently removed. 



62 



SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES. 



The main street is a wide grass-grown highway, laid out under the evident conviction, 
that land was plenty and jostling undesirable. 

Where Captain Green's house now stands, there was very recently one dated 1648^ 
eight years after the date of settlement. The old Pelletreau house, though decrepit and 
crazy, yet rears its weather-beaten front to the sun and wind. It now belongs to 
Mr. J. Foster, who lives in the adjoining house and has many interesting associations 
clinging to its walls. 

It was there that, in the Revolutionary War, General Erskine had his headquarters, 




and the mark of an ax in the floor of one of the rooms has led to the belief 
that on that spot the quartermaster cut up the beeves and sheep to be served 
out to the troops. 

Some of the best families are those which took deepest root in the soil, and their 
names are found on the roll of patriots who answered the President's call in 186 1. 

Here, therefore, one is not only in the best of company but in a place where decay has. 
touched only lightly, and where there is a past more or less stormy, with an historical back- 
ground of adventure. Indians armed husbandmen, and revolution has given place to a. 
placid and restful present. 

Passing down the main street one comes in sight of a long pond on which are a few 
sailing-boats, and at its southern extremity is a high ridge of sand dividing it from the 
ocean. At this point is the bathing station. The townsmen are so sensible of the 
advantage of having it well guarded and safe, that they recently fonned a Beach Asso- 
ciation for the purpose of devising means of affording to visitors adequate protection 
against accident. The result has been very satisfactory. A bathing master has been 
engaged to attend between certain hours every day, and there are all the usual safeguards 
of ropes and life-preservers. 

The Beach stretches for miles to east and west, and the view from the sand-hills is 
magnificent, embracing a wide expanse of picturesque country on the north, and on the 



SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES. 63; 

south the ocean, with ships passing under a cloud of sail, and now and again an ocean, 
steamer with a long thin line of smoke behind it. 

Returning to the village, the secret of its cool temperature and invigorating air is 
revealed. There is nothing to check the wind from the ocean, and the houses, which, 
occasionally have a bare appearance suggestive of heat, are cool and pleasant. 



ROCKAWAY. 

Forty years ago Far Rockaway, " on Long Island's seagirt shore," was the most 
famous and fashionable watering-place in this part of the country, Saratoga alone 
excepted. The renowned Marine Pavilion (consumed by fire many years ago), which 
stood just west of the little village, was a wonderful hotel ; but in these days of mam- 
moth structures it would be considered about third rate. Its broad piazza more than 
200 feet long, fronting the ocean, was trodden by Presidents and Governors and Mayors 
and foreign princes and all the beauty and fashion of the days of Jackson, Van Buren, 
and Tyler. 

Long Branch was known only in name, and Coney Island was only a desolate barren,, 
inhabited chiefly by a well-known character and bon vivant Gil Davis, who spent his days 
in getting up enormous clam bakes at or near Sheep's-Head Bay. 

After the burning of the Pavilion, Far Rockaway — to which access was had almost 
entirely by stages from Jamaica or Hempstead — ceased to be a watering-place, and fell 
back into the sleepy character of most Long Island villages. As for Rockaway Beach, 
no one ever thought of going there unless to shoot birds or gather crabs. It was only a 
line of sand dunes, looking across Jamaica Bay like a miniature of the Apennines. This 
Beach, constantly changing in surface by the action of the wind, is nearly five miles long, 
running west from Far Rockaway, and from an eighth to half a mile wide. The ocean 
front is almost a straight line, while the northern front, on Jamaica Bay, is as crooked 
as any ram's-horn that sounded at Jericho — not Jericho on Long Island, but the elder of 
that name. Of course the Beach was property^ worth perhaps five cents an acre. At 
least it was commonly so regarded. 

But about twenty-five years ago a certain James Remsen got it into his head that 
money could be made out of this apparently worthless sand. Keeping his own counsel, 
he quietly bought up nearly all the Beach M'est of Far Rockaway. 

It is said for a trifle over $500 he secured four miles of sand heaps, probably a 
thousand acres. 

Remsen's friends at once pronounced him a hopeless lunatic, and intimated that he 
should have a guardian, for such a donkey was unfit to manage his own affairs. 

The Jamaica man, however, kept on and soon built the Sea Side House, at what 
is now the second steamboat landing, the first house erected on the Beach. 

Patrons came slowly and with evident doubts, but they came ; and not long after the 
house was opened a little pocket steamboat was running from Canarsie to the house, a 
luxury for which Remsen in one year paid $1800. 

So much for the beginning of what has rapidly become one of the most popular and 
important of our seaside resorts. 

Now Rockaway Beach has a future at hand that promises to be even more brilliant 
than that which Coney Island realized so quickly. So far, it has, in even a more marked 



64 



SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES. 



degree, the natural qualifications for a great success. Its beach is infinitely finer in 
every way, and it is nearer to New York in point of time than Coney Island, Far Rock- 
away being accessible from Hunter's Point in thirty-five minutes. Of course, it is 
impossible that such a beach should not be availed of for summer purposes, and already 
the attention of capitalists has been turned thither. It is merely a question of a short 




">lfe^ vATV^-^^sErii 



time before Rockaway Beach undergoes a process of evolution like that which has taken 
place on Coney Island, and when it shall assume a place among the most celebrated 
watering-places of the Atlantic coast. 

As it is, now one may see from ten to twenty thousand people there of a hot summer's 
•day, and it is doubtful if anywhere else there is so much enjoyment to be found by the 
general public. The character of the place is strictly unconventional, but its freedom 
and unrestraint are not abused. One of the most amusing sights is the bathing, which 
is prosecuted with a vigor and persistency that are simply amazing. Next to it come the 



SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES.. 65 

interminable picnics, which are of every imaginable variety, and include all classes of 
people — those who bring enormous baskets of supplies from home, and those who get 
their provisions on the spot. Of course the Long Island clam is an indispensable and 
all-pervading feature, and the eating of it in some form is a ceremony that no one would 
■willingly forego. 



GARDEN CITY. 

It was a pretty good evidence of the value of Long Island land that so shrewd, 
intelligent and careful a man as the late Mr. A. T. Stewart should have chosen to 
invest in it so largely. A better evidence is afforded by the appearance of the land 
itself since it has been proved to be amenable to husbandry, and no one can visit 
Xjarden City and its vicinity without being convinced of the fact. 

Garden City, enuring, as its originator designed it should, to the benefit and comfort 
■of a great many people, was a curious experiment, but it has amply justified the purposes 
for which it was undertaken. Few communities anywhere possess like advantages or 
exist under conditions so congenial and so conducive to general welfare. 

It is a city founded upon the most approved principles of sanitary science, and to all 
who take an interest in such matters it is one of the most noteworthy and instructive 
•examples in existence. A writer in Dr. Bell's valuable journal, the Sanitariaii, speaks of 
.the location of Garden City as follows : 

Dr. B. W. Richardson, of London, not long ago set forth the admirable advantages 
which would accrue to a city founded on strictly sanitary principles — a city which shoulcj 
comprehend in full all the benefits which pertain to the best chosen situation with regard to 
■climate, soil, drainage, water supply, house construction, food supplies, disposal of refuse, 
public buildings, churches, schools, hospitals, places of amusement, factories, fire-stations — 
■all the appurtenances and avoidances necessary to the promotion and maintenance of the 
highest standard of human health. But the great merchant prince of New York, 
A. T. Stewart, even before the appearance of Dr. Richardson's paper, had the sagacity 
to found a city — a " Garden City " — on a tract of land which had remained .utterly 
neglected from the first settlement of this country by Europeans, on account of a singular 
belief or fatuity that it was barren or unfit for culture. Yet, strange to say, this tract of 
land, on which Garden City is situated, possesses all the natural advantages suited to 
Dr. Richardson's ideal " City of Health ;" and, with the required sanitary skill in the 
construction of this new city. Long Island will ere long exult in possessing the veritable 
City of Health, so graphically though fancifully depicted by Dr. Richardson. 

The great Hempstead Plains, which Mr. Stewart "took, held and possessed," is a 
remarkable tract of country. An old historian, who described it more than two hundred 
years ago, says : — " Toward the middle of the Island lyeth a plain, sixteen miles long 
and four miles broad, upon which plain groweth very fine grass that makes exceeding 
good hay, and is very good pasture for sheep and other cattel." 

There were about sixty thousand acres in this wonderful piece of land ; it was, in 
fact, a prairie — a great and beautiful upland meadow producing " very fine grass that 
makes exceeding good hay." I will try in a few words to describe the situation, 
surface, soil and geological structure of this celebrated spot. The westerly part of the 
*'' Plains " is about fifteen miles from Brooklyn, and can be seen from the spires and 



66 SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES. 

*' high house-tops " of Bedford. Starting from the South Ferry, where the rails of the old" 
L. I. R. R. were seven feet above tide-water ; and at Bedford, two and a half miles^. 
73 feet; at the watering place formerly called Howard's Woods, on the high ground this- 
side of East New York, 83 feet j thence descending to Jamaica Depot, where the rails- 
are 40 feet above tide-water ; thence easterly, the grade is uphill all the way to Hicks- 
ville, twenty-five miles from Brooklyn, or South Ferry, where it is 150 feet above tide- 
water. This is the summit level of the L. I. R. R., and is near the northeasterly border' 
of Hempstead Plains, which extends north of Hicksville to the southerly edge of the. 
Hills of Jericho. At Hempstead Branch, or Mineola, about a mile north of Garden 
City Hotel, the rails are 103 feet above tide-water. These distances or heights are 
given to show the situation or position of this great tract. It is an elevated table-land: 
with a southern aspect, with a descent of about twenty feet to the mile. It is bounded 
on the north by the high grounds or ridge of hills running through the island from west 
to east ; with this regular and gentle descent to the southern shore of the island, the; 
under drainage is most complete and perfect. Then the surface of the " Plains," from 
west to east, is gently undulating, in long swells, elevations and depressions looking 
southwardly, have exactly the appearance of the dried bed of streams ; and following 
them down towards the south borders of the Plains, streams of purest water are found in. 
many of them. 

These rollings or undulations of the land present, in fact, three drainage surfaces on 
each of them, one southerly of about twenty feet to the mile, and one on each side gently 
sloping to the west and to the east from the centre of these elevated sections, thereby 
presenting a most wonderful natural drainage. The surface soil is a dark loam from 
fifteen inches to two feet in depth. It looks just what a lady would select to fill her 
flower-pots with, and is highly productive, and which grew and grows the "very fine- 
grass that made exceeding good hay," according to the old chronicle ; and what is 
remarkable, this grass never runs out — it is always fresh and green. And it may here be 
remarked that the natural grasses of Hempstead Plains are the most nutritious grasses 
that can be found in the Northern States. 

The turf upon this upper and dark soil is so thick and strong as to require a team of 
three horses with a strong plow to turn a furrow through it. Under this layer of dark 
loam is a layer of yellow loam, of about equal thickness, in many places a clay loam or- 
clay; and under these, generally at a depth of about two feet and a half or three feet, is 
the firm, compact gravel and sand that everywhere form the main body of Long Island, 
for it is literally a " child of the ocean." 

These undersands and gravels are firm and compact (there are no quicksands), and 
intermingled with fine silicious sands, comminuted, almost levigated, forming the most 
complete and perfect filter that can possibly be made ; and the water found under this 
whole region, and flowing out of it, is of the purest and sweetest kind, and never fails. 
It has been claimed recently that a great subterranean river flows under Hempstead 
Plains, or such is the inference from the inexhaustible flow that is found from 20 to 30 
feet under the surface. 

The climate is the finest in the State of New York, most healthful and pleasant. 
There are no stagnant waters nor malarious land within miles of this highly-favored and 
most interesting region. 

There is no place like it for the foundation of a City of Health — the great work has 
been done by nature. There are not men and horses enough in this, the great Empire 
State, to form such a foundation for a City of Health ; and if Mrs. Stewart will improve 



SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES. 67 

these great natural advantages and found the first City of Health in America, she will 
become a benefactress to her race, and gain immortal honor. 

The most striking sanitary features of the place, adds another correspondent, are : 
an inexhaustible supply of the purest water, the perfect conditions for subsoil and 
surface drainage, and, consequently, total absence of malaria, and of the causes which 
produce it. With these conditions, and a climate tempered by the contiguous ocean 
shore, the " Old Hempstead Plains," under intelligent cultivation, are rapidly assuming 
features of utility and beauty, and must, eventually, become immensely important as 
suburbs of Brooklyn and New York. 

The water supply of the region is wholly from rainfall, the average of which is about 
43 inches a year. It has been estimated that three-fourths of this sinks into the porous 
soil. The surface waste is certainly small, and occurs in winter when the ground 
is frozen. 

The subsoil which holds the water is clean silicious gravel and sand, and free from 
aluminous and calcareous matters. In the progress of the work in founding this new 
city, there is not a single instance where decayed or decaying organic substances ha\'e 
been found in the soil. The soil deposit is in layers, the beds having a dip southward 
or towards the ocean, the total depth being at least seventy feet. It is probably much 
more in places. Six miles southward the depth was found to be sixty-eight feet, with a 
deposit of compact blue clay underneath. At Garden City a dense crust or " hard pan '" 
was found, by boring through the gravels, at seventy feet below the surface. 

The beds of sand we are considering are evidently formed of the boulder drift of 
which the Island is composed, disintegrated and ground to sand and gravel by waves of 
the ocean during a period of coast subsidence. These sands now constitute a vast 
reservoir of water from rainfall, more perfect than any which human ingenuity has 
contrived. Wells sunk into the saturated sands are inexhaustible. The one at Garden 
City is fifty feet in diameter ; the surface of the water in it is twenty-five feet below the 
general level of the " plains " at the place where it is located — in a valley fourteen feet 
below the general surface — so that the depth of the well or reservoir to the surface of the 
water, is only eleven feet. The depth of the water is twenty feet, and it rises from the 
bottom ; none gets in through the sides of the reservoir. W^ater is conveyed to all the 
houses of Garden City by the Holly System, the pump being adequate to discharge 
3,000,000 gallons a day. 

The enormous volume of the water supply will be appreciated, from the fact that in 
constructing the reservoir two wrecking pumps, discharging through pipes ten inches in 
diameter, were worked continuously day and night for a whole week, in order to lower 
the water sufficiently to proceed with the work. 

As stated, the level of saturation in the soil at Garden City is about twenty-five feet 
below the surface. The elevation of the surface is about 103 feet above tide, or nearly 
the same as that given by the Long Island Railroad Survey for Mineola. According to 
the observations of W. R. Hinsdale, Esq., the thoroughly competent manager of the 
Garden City site, the surface of saturation in the soil has a slope southward or towards 
the ocean of eight feet to the mile. This is less than that given in the original surveys 
for the Brooklyn waterworks, by about one-third. But the result stated in the surv'ey, 
12-14 feet to the mile, was from an average of many observations, over a very wide area. 
The slope of the surface is not uniform, but undulating between twelve and twenty feet. 

At various points southward of the "plains" the water breaks out, forming streams 



68 SOME DETAILS ABOUT OTHER PLACES. 

into the valleys. In a distance of fifty miles along the south shore of the Island there 
are no less than sixty of these spring streams flowing into the bay, and some of them are 
utilized in the water supply of Brooklyn. 

From the fact that the level of saturation at Garden City and over the entire "plain" 
district of Long Island is many feet above tide-water, there occurs a ceaseless movement 
of the water in the soil — slow indeed, but persistent — which will flow on so long as clouds 
drop in rain upon the region. And thus it happens that the entire volume is constantly 
in motion, never stagnant. The quantity which falls upon the ground is immense. 
Forty-three inches of rainfall is more than i\ cubic feet upon a square foot of surface. 
For convenience of calculation, let us assume that three feet penetrates the soil. This 
would give more than 83,000,000 of cubic feet upon a square mile, or two and a half 
millions of tons. A freight car will carry ten tons. Two hundred and fifty thousand 
cars, therefore, would be required to convey the rainfall upon one square mile in a year. 
It is easy to see that the volume in the subsoil reservoir is immense, while the waste by 
streams is enormous — but the supply is adequate. 

The level of saturation in the soil varies but little in a year. It is certain, therefore, 
that the entire volume of water, excepting that which is lifted by evaporation or absorbed 
ty vegetation, is steadily and incessantly moving towards the ocean. 

The houses of the estate are of the most substantial and comfortable construction, 
and as a matter of course nothing has been left undone in such matters as ventilation, 
sewerage, water and gas. Rents are moderate and the social conditions that prevail are 
of the most desirable character. 

The hotel at Garden City is somewhat of a surprise to strangers, who in small country 
communities do not expect to find an establishment conducted upon the principles of the 
first houses in the metropolis. Yet such is the case, and the hotel at Garden City is 
maintained upon a strictly first-class basis. 

Garden City, as a place of summer residence, possesses exceptional advantages in its 
proximity to both the city and the various seaside watering-places. Rockaway Beach 
and Brighton Beach, Fire Island and Babylon, can be reached at all hours of the day 
with convenience and comfort, and parties take advantage of the facilities offered and 
spend their mornings or afternoons in seeking the various diversions of all these resorts. 
Mr. W. R. Hinsdale is in charge of the estate, and can be addressed at Garden City. 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 




EIRD winter-night tales of shipwreck and disasters at sea are told all along the 
southern coast of the Island. There axe graveyards that contain only the 
remains of those that have perished in the great winter storms, and all along 
the coast are strewn the " bones " of brave ships that have gone to pieces on 
Long Island sands. In the winter they furnish fearful sights and episodes of chilling 
horror, but in the summer children play about them merrily and artists make them into 
pleasant pictures. Houses are built of wreckage, fences are made of stout ribs and knees 
of merchantmen ; and the fragments of gay woodwork conduce to warm many a well-filled 
pot and melt the heart of many a devoted clam. 

The story of the fate of the yohn Milton is told at Montauk, and many a piece of 
that unhappy ship is yet picked up on the beach near Stratton's. Further to the west, 
Great South Beach is full of thrilling memories, and the spot is pointed out where 
Margaret Fuller Ossoli perished with her husband. At Sammis's Surf House at Fire 
Island one day a great ocean steamer, the Idaho, landed all her passengers — uninten- 
tionally, but safely — and then finding out her mistake, went on to New York and arrived 
there as soon as they did by the railroad. Last year she made another mistake of the 
same kind on the other side, and went permanently out of commission at the bottom of 
St. George's Channel. 

Of the wreck of the Circassian, Mr. Ernest IngersoU tells the following stoiy in 
Harper's Monthly : 

It was just opposite Bridgehampton that the Circassian was wrecked in the winter of 
1874-75, by which half the remnants of Shinnecock Indians lost their lives. The captain 
is said to have had a presentiment when he went aboard of the vessel that he would 
never leave her alive, and of course he didn't. How the mate and three .seamen w-ere 
saved is worth telling. The mate was a very resolute, cool-headed man, and made up his 
mind to the inevitable some time before the catastrophe came. With three of his men 
he got a buoy aloft where they were clinging to the rigging almost frozen, and there 
remained until the last thump upon the bottom should be given, 'and the ship fall over on 
her beam-ends a total wreck. 

All the time they were conning over their plan of action. At last the ship gave a 
final lurch, struck with crushing force on the sand, and the tall mast leaned swiftly to the 
water like a felled tree. This was their moment, and the four men, clinging to the buoy 
as best they could, were hurled into the raging surf. One man, though, lost his hold, 
and with a drowning clutch seized the mate around the neck. The mate had his knife 



70 FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 

in his belt, and instantly drawing it shouted : " Let go or I'll kill you ! " The sailor 
knew he would keep his word and did let go, to successfully grasp the buoy. Thus 
hanging on, with their hands now recovering limberness in the warmer water, and locking 
their feet together underneath the buoy to ballast it, they began their perilous drifting 
shoreward. 

All the while the mate kept his perfect self-possession and his eyes open. " Shut ! " 
he would ejaculate as a wave swept over them ; "Breathe! " when it had passed and 
their heads were out for an instant. After awhile they seemed near shore. " I'll 
sound ! " said the mate, and unlocking his feet he let himself down and could touch 
bottom. " Next wave run ! " was his brief direction, and they did, but only two got 
ashore. The third swam in on the second wave and was dragged upon the beach. 
The last man came a moment later, bruised and insensible, but alive. 

" Them Injuns was a cryin' and hollerin' and callin' on the Lord, and every mother's 
son of 'em went to Davy Jones' locker. It's all very well, but I 'low nothin' but that old 
buoy saved my life," says the mate. 

All things considered, fewer wrecks — a serious consequence — than might be expected 
have taken place on this coast. The men living along the shore are adepts at riding the 
surf and every form of seamanship, as might be expected of whalemen and fishermen. 
They can therefore render the most efficient help possible, and even the coast-guard 
find themselves in the background occasionally when a vessel is reported ashore. 



SUBURBAN HOMES AND LONG 
ISLAND FARMS. 




ONG ISLAND must inevitably pla}^ an important part in furnishing suburban 
homes for people whose business interests lie in New York, For miles along 
the Sound the shore is lined with village after village, made accessible to New 
York by the New York and New Haven Railroad and by the numerous boats 
that ply daily between Norwalk and the East River. Now that Long Island has been 
made more accessible by a new railroad system and by improved terminal facilities in 
Brooklyn and at Hunter's Point, the manifest advantages of its north and south coast lines 
-and intermediate places must attract attention. The city can be reached in an hour from 
jDoints forty miles distant, and within that distance there are the most delightful and 
salubrious localities for both transient and permanent residence. This region must 
■eventually become taken up for dwellings, and at no remote period, judging from the 
inducements to settlers that the railroads are now offering in the shape of transporta- 
tion privileges for building materials and free annual tickets for terms proportioned 
to the character of the improvements undertaken. The extraordinary salubrit}' of 
the region, the enjoyments of its seaside resorts, the bathing, the fishing, and the 
variety of recreations that its facilities confer, together with the cheapness of trans- 
portation, low cost of living, and contiguity to the city, must speedily result in a large 
influx of a new population. No such convenient homes can be secured anywhere 
about New York, and certainly none from which the city can be reached with such 
regularity and comfort. The vicissitudes of the ferries in the winter time will be 
■ended for people who live on Long Island with the completion of the Brooklyn 
Bridge, and this long neglected and comparatively unknown territory will assume 
its proper relation to the metropolis. 

To farmers and new settlers generally the Long Island Railroad offers similar induce- 
ments in the shape of free transportation, for certain periods, of passengers, and important 
reductions on freight on building materials, subject only to conditions that are a protec- 
tion against abuse and that are in every way attractive to new comers. There are over 
four hundred thousand acres of unimproved lands on Long Island, within a hundred miles 
•of New York, consisting for the most part of good arable land, as good as any that has 
made fortune upon fortune in any part of the island for thrifty owners, but which has gone 
nmknown and condemned through the shiftlessness and perversity of Long Islanders 
'themselves. Christened "barrens" by ignorant, injurious and stupid persons who 
concerned themselves with Long Island interests at a time when it was possible for such 



72 SUBURBAN HOMES. 

persons to make or mar them, barren those lands have in truth remained as regards 
human interference. One writer in a well known work on Long Island, published 
years ago, in speaking of a station on the Main Line, described himself as standing 
in a desert of "liquefied sand," and otherwise drew a picture of forbidding wastes and 
hopeless sterility. And yet on the very spot of which he wrote thus, there is to-day, 
and has been for nearly fifteen years, a most prosperous and successful nursery, 
and nurseries are not commonly sought to be established in sterile and sandy barrens. 

Mr. Kinsella, the distinguished and able editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, investigated 
the question personally and wrote about it as follows : 

" The earnest efforts which the Eagle has recently made to direct general attention 
to the neglected lands of Long Island, we are confident will be attended with success, 
for the genius of the great territory, so long misnamed the 'barrens,' might have 
said with the Grecian chieftain: 'Give me but light; Ajax asks no more.' There are 
children now born who will be able to tell, to the surprise of those who hear them, 
that in their youth there were five hundred thousand acres of land on Long Island, 
within between one and two hours railroad ride of New York — already one of the great 
cities of the world — that had not, up to that time, contributed anything to the support 
or the independence of man. The anomaly of a metropolis at one end of Long 
Island and a wilderness on the other, will very soon cease to exist. There is not any- 
thing in the world more extraordinary to-day than the fact that there are tens of 
thousands of able-bodied men in these cities, idle while able and willing to work, 
crowded with their families into tenement houses where life is hardly endurable, and 
that there are at the same time tens of thousands of acres of land lying idle within 
a day's walk of these cities, which is capable of yielding employment, sustenance and. 
independence to every one of these unwilling idlers. This state of things is a disgrace 
to our civilization, boastful of nothing so much as of its ability and disposition to 
turn even the hidden forces of nature to the comfort and convenience of man. The 
old and dreary question : ' Can the wild lands of Long Island be cultivated ? ' has 
no longer any pertinence in the consideration of that other question : ' Ought they be ? ' 
for these lands are being cultivated. On nearly every part of this territory, settle- 
ments have been made by thrifty men who had the courage to think and act for them- 
selves. In these settlements, many of them carved out of the very heart of the 'bar- 
rens,' is the practical proof of what can be done. Take the question of fruit-raising, 
one of the least laborious and one of the most reliable of agricultural industries. In 
the settlements at Brentwood and Central Islip, in the very heart of the wild lands,, 
there are gardens and orchards to-day containing trees loaded down with fruit of the 
finest kind. In one settlement apples have been produced this year measuring twelve 
and a half inches in circumference and weighing fourteen ounces; peaches weighing 
half a pound and pears in abundance. Nor is the territory in question a place 
where health and life are endangered in the pursuit of the means of living. There is no 
disagreement on this question : that the central region of Long Island is one of the 
healthiest countries in the world. The enterprising and the humane citizens of these 
cities must take up the question of these lands. Wealth is not to be created at Wash- 
ington by making money out of paper, although knaves tell fools that it can be. 
We have unused wealth at our very doors, and if we can only add to it the wealth 
created by honest labor, Long Island, as a whole, will blossom like the rose, while 
supporting in comfort, outside of Kings County, not a sluggish population of a hundred 
thousand, but an energetic, restless and still increasing population of half a million." 



SUBURBAN HOMES. 7 J 

There can be little question of the solution of this problem. The efforts that are 
now being made must result in a certain, if tardy, justification of Long Island, and in 
the acquisition of the large, thrifty and prosperous population that her geographical 
position and her natural wealth entitle her to. The relation of the Long Island Rail- 
road to the interests of Long Island is well understood and fully recognized, and it 
shall not be justly said of its management that its duty in this regard was neglected. 

The main body of the land in question extends from Farmingdale to Riverhead, a dis- 
tance of forty miles, and lies within about four miles of the railroad on each side. Thus 
the railroad affords direct communication with a vast region of as fine garden and farming 
land as is to be found in the State of New York, all within one or two hours of the great 
markets of New York and Brooklyn. No such opportunities can be found on any other 
railroad in this State. The land is comprised within an elevated plateau, the sides of 
which are parallel with the railroad for a distance of about fifty miles — about loo feet 
above tidewater and gently sloping to the south about 20 feet to the mile. The soil is a 
fine warm yellow loam, some places a clay loam, and upon an average about two feet deep 
before any substrata can be reached. In many places it is much deeper. The underlying 
stratum is a firm, compact bed of sand and gravel, without loose gravel or quicksands, and 
forming a complete and perfect underdrain. The soil is not leachy or porous; it is easy 
to clear and easy to till. There are no stones in it or upon it. Any of this land cleared, 
presents the most beautiful garden surface imaginable, fit for an onion or a tulip-bed, and 
will produce anything in crops or fruit, grass, corn, and grain, that any lands in this lati- 
tude can produce, and this by ordinary cultivation. It is not here that the lands require 
extra cost and care in culture, extra or immoderate manure in fertilizing. < They only need 
the care and culture that all or any lands require. More than forty of the most eminent 
agriculturists and practical farmers in the State of New York who examined carefully these 
Long Island lands during the last thirty years, all testify in the most positive manner in 
favor of their productive qualities. 

The evidence to sustain these important facts may be found in the ten new villages and 
settlements made in these lands in the past thirty years from Farmingdale to Yaphank — 
Farmingdale, Deer Park, Brentwood, Central Islip, Lakeland, Holbrook, Waverly, Med- 
ford, and the two settlements, Edinvale and Bohemiaville, a little off from the railroad to 
the south. These settlements — Edinvale, made by Mr. W. J. Spiner, and the Bohemian 
settlement — were made in the darkest part of " the plains." They are both highly success- 
ful, and possess comfortable homes, churches, schools, and the finest gardens, fruit orchards, 
meadows, corn and wheat fields, that can be found anywhere on Long Island. They have 
been settled by intrepid men and their families, who came into the wilderness, cleared and 
cultivated the land. To show the extent and location of these lands, we propose to offer 
the census of 1845, as published by the Rev. Wm. Prime. Nobody has ever disputed this 
statement as to the uncultivated lands in Suffolk County, and if it were true then, it is true 
now, for no thousands of acres of lands have been cleared and cultivated since 1845. The 
new settlements do not occupy thousands of acres. 

In the old town of Huntington, which is centrally distant from New York about 35 
miles, there were, by the census of 1845, 50,968 acres of unimproved land. The Long 
Island Railroad passes through the middle of this great tract. It is all good land, most 
of it of the very best quality. 

The next town is Islip, centrally distant about 42 miles from New York, and contained 
in 1845, 63,984 acres of unimproved land. This unimproved land is all good and culti- 
vatable, as a rule. 



74 SUBURBAN HOMES. 

The next town east is Brookhaven, which contained 117,357 ^^res of unimproved land 
in 1845. The Railroad passes through the centre of these lands, which are good and 
arable. 

Next, the town of Riverhead has about 25,000 acres of unimproved land. 

The towns of East and West Hampton have over 50,000 acres in each of unimproved 
land. 

Making in all 449,953 acres of unimproved land unoccupied and uncultivated in 
Suffolk County. All these vast tracts, as a rule, are good and cultivatable land. Wood 
and timber grow very rapidly on all these lands, but the axe and the fires in the past fifty 
years have destroyed most of the wood and timber thereon. 

It is to this great new country in the midst of an old country that settlers are invited. 



KOTES ON A FORTY MILE RIDE ON THE LONG 

ISLAND RAILROAD. 

BY THE PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY OF THE FARMERS' CLUB OF THE 
AMERICAN INSTITUTE, AUGUST 9, 1878. 




T 8 : 30 A. M., we left Flatbush and Brooklyn. Thermometer 78°. During the 
day, judging by our feelings, the heat must have risen to 84°. Next day the 
New York Times reported that at Hudnut's the range was from 80° to 91° 
Fahrenheit. The breeze throughout the day was balmy and delightful. The 
beautiful panorama begins with the old town of Jamaica. Here trees, flowers, gardens, 
lawns and lovely residences dawned upon the vision. All along from Jamaica, on both 
sides of the railroad, thrifty fields of corn waved in the breeze. How bright and green 
and lusty it looked ! It ranged from 7 to 9 feet high. This judgment was afterward 
verified by close observation. 

This scene Vv^as constantly repeated in varying changes as we passed Queens, Hyde 
Park and Mineola. But at Garden City the breadth and extent of the fields enlarged 
the view. There corn-fields of unsurpassed beauty extended into hundreds of acres. 
Interspersed were mown meadows and harvested fields of rye and oats, also numbering 
•acres by the hundred. On a previous visit we had seen these fields covered by a thrifty 
grass, tall rye and oats, making a sea of yellow and green of varied undulations. But on 
•our last trip the grains had been harvested, and were gathered into great stacks awaiting 
the steam thrashers to fit them for the market, and the hay gathered into barns for winter 
use. A most pleasing feature of the landscape on the right and on the left was the 
•variety of color and beauty of the trees, consisting of Norway maples, chestnuts, Euro- 
pean white ash and Norway spruce, hemlock, white pine, arbor vitae, European larch, fir, 
•balsam fir, horse chestnut, apple, cherry, peach, linden, Scotch elm, althea, juniper, 
Scotch pine, weeping willow, brown beech. Napoleon willow, soft and sugar maple, and 
many other varieties not remembered or unknown to us. In the region many miles 
around Brentwood, this adornment is due to Mr. E. F. Richardson, whose nurseries of 
these variety of trees are the finest, thriftiest, and most perfect ever seen by us anywhere. 
These trees were planted from the seed, stand in drills close together, and are plowed 
and cultivated between the rows. 

On Mr. Richardson's place the soil of yellow, containing black humus, extended more 
than two feet in depth. We pulled some samples of self-sown timothy along the oak and 
pine lands measuring five feet in height. Red top and clover abounded in the cleared 
iields, also sweet grasses and a profusion of white clover. 



76 NOTES ON LONG ISLAND LAND. 

" Barrens " is a misnomer ; fertile plains and woodlands would better speak the truth. 
The trees have been rendered blackened skeletons by the frequent fires raging through 
these untilled and uncared-for brush-wood lands. All along the road from Westbury^ 
Hicksville, and to Farmingdale, are alternate fields of fine corn, meadow pasture, buck- 
wheat, red clover, potatoes, cabbages, beets, and well-tended gardens. From this last 
place we come to the bugbear of Long Island — the bush lands. 

At Brentwood some energetic farming is profitably done, and the soil seems prompt 
in rewarding every degree of attention bestowed upon it. 

The only desolation is the absence of stalwart young farmers, scattered over these 
neglected acres, to give the Island the real appearance of thrift, such as Mr. Buger some 
time since initiated at Central Islip. 

Here, too, Mr, James Slater, proprietor of the Berkely in this city, has by energy, 
means and intelligence, transformed condemned " Barrens " into fertile fields. The 
scrub oaks and burnt pines have disappeared, root and branch, in a single year, and aa 
elegant cottage has risen, as if by magic, surrounded by grass, rye, clover, trees, fences, 
lawns, flowers. Where the soil is poor and worthless, neither trees, nor grass, nor 
crops will grow. 

But here everything will grow with ordinary care and attention. The Long Island 
climate is wonderfully salubrious, the air cool, balmy, and tempered in winter by the 
Gulf Stream, so that the thermometer seldom rises above 90° or falls to zero. Tor- 
nadoes do not occur. The water is good and easily reached from the surface. It 
never fails in winter or summer, and the roads without care are good, and are neither 
sandy nor muddy. 

Neither Mr. Chambers nor I own a foot of these lands, and only in the interest 
of agriculture have we traced these notes of observation. 

Among the most distinguished citizens who have commended these lands, stand 
first and foremost Dr. Edgar F, Peck, Gen. Chandler, Chas. Henry Hall, Samuel Allen, 
Dr. Mitchell, General Dix, Prof. Renwick, Dr. Underbill, T. B. Wakeman, Francis 
Barretto, John G, Bergen, Winslow C. Watson, Solon Robinson, Mr, W. Hinsdale, and 
scores of others, whose character and standing render their opinions, judgments and 
information beyond doubt or question. In conclusion we must say that the soil is pro- 
ductive, that it is easily cleared and readily and cheaply tilled, that the land is cheap and 
accessible, and that it has a good, convenient and never-failing market near at hand, in 
New York City, That the climate, air and water are unsurpassed. After what we have 
seen, after what we have learned, after what has been proven by gentlemen of experi- 
ence, we must conclude that Long Island lands are, all things considered, most desirable 
for farms, gardens, vineyards, orchards and nurseries, and most healthful to reside upon. 
Here no malaria lurks in swamp or morass or fen, on this central elevation of beautiful 
Long Island. 

The Long Island Railroad is -well located, and under the present receiver it is better 
managed than ever. With a liberal management and generous support of the roads, the 
Island lands must soon be occupied. And, finally, with a hundred acres of the pine 
lands cleared and a regular attendance upon the meetings of the Farmers' Club of the 
American Institute, any young farmer of energy must succeed in Long Island farming. 



THE NEW LONG ISLAND 



IMPROVEMENT AND EMIGRATION SCHEME. 



LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD COMPANY, 



THOS. R. SHARP, Receiver. 



Revised Notice to Nev/ Settlers. 

The Receiver of the Long Island Rail Road Company desires to call the avtention of 
all in search of homes to the inducements ofifered to New Settlers on Long Island who will 
purchase land for Farming and Gardening and make improvements thereon, or purchase 
lots and build dwellings, or purchase new dwellings which are to be occupied by them- 
selves. 

Long Island has many delightful villages and suburban towns and thousands of acres 
of excellent unimproved land. These lands are the very best for Market Gardening or 
ordinary Farmmg, and can be purchased at extremely low rates. 

The following inducements are offered to those purchasing Farms ; 

Free transportation for their Families, Domestics and Laborers, when moving. 

A reduction of one half from Tariff rates on their household effects, from Brooklyn 
or Long Island City, when moving to their homes on the line of the Long Island Rail Road. 

Produce raised on their farms and shipped by them to New York, Brooklyn or Long 
Island City, will be transported at a reduction of one-half I'rom Tariff rates, and the head 
of the family will be transported free, for one year from the date of acceptance of their 
application. 

To those purchasing Town Lots and building houses thereon, to be occupied by them- 
selves, a free ticket for one year, fifty per cent, reduction from Tariff rates for their house- 
hold effects, and free transportation for their families and servants, from Brooklyn or Long 
Island City^ when moving. 

All building materials strictly for their own use in improving the property purchased 
by them, will be transported for New Settlers from Brooklyn or Long Island City at half 
Tariff rates for one year. 



78 NOTICE TO NEW SETTLERS. 

THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THESE PRIVILEGES WILL BE GRANTED 

ARE AS FOLLOWS; 

I. — Application must be made on the printed forms supplied by the Company, which 
may be obtained at all stations on the Line. The correctness of the statements must be 
vouched for by an authorized agent of the Company. 

2. — The applicant must be an actual New Settler and not a previous resident of that 
portion of Long Island tributary to the Long Island Railroad, and must occupy and im- 
prove the property purchased. 

3. — The property must have been purchased within three months previous to the date 
of application, and at date of purchase unimproved, or not occupied during previous 
twelve months. 

4. — The cost of the Town Lots and Houses shall not be less than one thousand dol- 
lars, and when a house is to be built by purchaser of lot, it must cost not less than eight 
hundred dollars. When cost of improvements exceeds three thousand dollars, an addi- 
tional free ticket for one year will be given. 

5. — The Station nearest the acquired property must be stated in the application. 

6. — Parties purchasing houses erected by Land Companies, or others, will have the 
same privileges extended to them, provided proper application is made, and the circum- 
stances fully made known. 

7. — The Receiver reserves the right to reject all applications not satisfactory. Agents 
will be supplied with application blanks, and when filled up and certified by them, will for- 
ward them to 

W. M, LAFFAN, General Passenger Agent, 
January 20, 1880. 229 Broadway, New York.. 



NEWPORT AND BLOCK ISLAND. 



The geographical position of Long Island, and the directness in which the main line of 
the Long Island Railroad runs from its eastern to its western end, indicate that it offers 
extraordinary advantages as a route to Block Island, Newport and Narragansett Pier, and 
all the rapidly-growing watering-places about Nantucket, Martha's Vineyarll and south of 
Cape Cod. It has been determined to make an effort, during the summer of 1880, to 
establish a direct and convenient route to all of these points. Their rapid growth indicates 
that they possess sterling attractions for the better class of people, and the disposition of 
the public to avail of first-class transportation whenever offered, indicates the practicability 
and wisdc m of tlie scheme. 

Here ofore attempts made in a like direction have failed, because of their being mis- 
manageJ, ad because also the places which it was proposed to connect with, had not 
yet at:^ined sufficient growth. In respect to the first objection, the present management 
of t-.j Lo::g IsL.nd Railroads for the last two seasons is a sufficient guarantee that the for- 
mer cbje.;i:.n will not again prevail ; while the rapid growth of the various watering, 
places, at the entrance to Long Island Sound and at and near Newport, furnishes abundant 
promise of large travel. 

The time, under the present management of the Long Island Railroad, between New 
York and Greenport, has been reduced to two hours and thirty minutes, the distance 
being ninety-four and one-half miles. The boats of the Eastern Steam Navigation Com- 
pany will, under all ordinary circumstances, be enabled to reach Newport in 4, and Block 
Is and in 2i hours; the sail across is one unexcelled in its beauty and variety on the At- 
lantic Coast, and as a careful scrutiny of the meteorological reports indicates the expec- 
tations of bad wea.her, during the summer months, to be equivalent to only two percent., 
it is apparent that the conditions under which these trips are made cannot fail to be agree- 
able to the travelling public. 

The view in passing out of Greenport Harbor is one that has always possessed a rare 
charm for artists and tourists. Gardiner's Island, noted for its Indian and Capt.-Kidd 
traditions, is kft to the southward, and the grand promontory of Montauk, Fort-Pond Bay 
and Cape Culloden form an interesting panorama, which ends at the great lighthouse on 
the extreme eastern point of Long Island. 

Block Island, some fifeen miles distant, is reached in an hour after passing Montauk, 
the course lying around the South Light and the Breakwater, lately constructed by the 
Government From Newport arrangements have been made for close connections with 
Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, New Bedford and Boston. 

If the new structure at Narragansett Pier be completed in time, and is entirely con- 
venient to land boats at that point, it will also be made a stopping-place. 



3o NEWPORT AND BLOCK ISLAND. 

The advantages which this route possesses, in a general way, are these: In the first place, 
less than three hours is consumed by rail, and the journey of passengers during those three 
hours will be made as pleasant as possible by parlor cars and first-class passenger coaches, 
no stops being made between New York and Greenport, except for the purpose of taking 

■water. 

As compared with the methods of reaching Block Island from New York that the public 
has heretofore had, it presents the advantage of requiring but five and a half hours as 
against from twenty to twenty-four; passengers have had to go to New London and Provi- 
dence, a tedious journey, stopping at such hotels as can be found in those places, in order 
to take the boat on the following morning. None of these boats so engaged have beers 
at all adequate to the public requirements. 

In regard to Newport, even the excellent accommodations furnished by the different 
lailroads do not compare favorably with this route. From eight to nine hours in the most 
comfortable cars in the summer-time cannot be spent in the same degree of comfort as 
the same time with its monotony varied by the recreations to be found on the fast and 
commodious steamboat?, particularly as it is intended that these steamers shall in them- 
selves be more than ordinarily attractive. They will contain no state-rooms, as such are 
ordinarily understood, but will be furnished with private parlors and dining-rooms, with a 
first-class open-air and inclosed restaurant, in charge of a skilled and competent man. 
There will be warm and cold salt-water baths and a first-class barber-shop, and, in addition, 
every device for the comfort of travellers will be supplied. Punctuality, comfort, safety 
and speed will be the leading characteristics of their management. 

The Ocean View Hotel is kept by Mr. Nicholas Bull, and is admirably managed by Mr. 
O. S. Harden. The table is excellent, and the situation of the house unrivalled. It 
stands on the top of the cliffs and overlooks Block Island harbor and thirty miles of the 
Atlantic Ocean. The steamer- landing is distant about one hundred yards from the house. 
The following description of Block Island is from the pen of one of the most valued 
contributors to Harper's Magazine, in which superb periodical it w?s published in July, 
1876:— 

As the poet Dana made Block Island the scene of his fascinating story, called the 
*' Buccaneer," we may, with propriety, begin our description with the opening verses of his 
famous poem — 

*' The island lies nine leagues away. 

Along its solitary shore, 
Of craggy rock and sandy bay, 
No sound but ocean's roar; 
Save when the bold, wild seabird makes her home, 
Her jhrill cry coming through the sparkling foam. 

" But when the light winds lie at rest, 

And on the glassy, heaving sea 
The black duck, with her glossy breast, 
Sits swinging silently — • 
How beautiful ! no ripples break the reach, 
And silvery waves go noiseless up the beach." 

Its exact position, at the junction of Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay, is, 
longitude 71° 31' west, and latitude 40° 8' north, and is washed by those waters of the 
AUantic which are perpetually blue. 










4»=5 






L 



SOUTH CLIFFS. 



82 NE WPOR T AND BLOCK I SLA ND. 

The island is between eight and nine miles long, and from two to four in width. At 
its northern extremity, where stands a lighthouse, a sandy bar shoots out for a mile and a 
half under the water, upon the end of which people now living allege that they have gath- 
ered berries, and from which at least two lighthouses have been removed in the last fifty 
years on account of the encroachments of the sea. 

Bluffs, rising to the height of one and two hundred feet, alternate with broad stretches 
of white beach in forming its entire shores. 

Its surface is undulating, to an uncommon degree, and almost entirely destitute of trees. 

The highest hill, lying south of the centre, rises more than three hundred feet above 
the sea ; and, by way of atoning for its want of running streams, it has two handsome 
lakes, one of which is of fresh water and the other of salt water, with an area of about two 
thousand acres. 

Small ponds, fed by springs, are numerous, and of great value to the farmers. The 
only harbor on the island lies on the eastern side, nearly midway between the two extremi- 
ties, and the contrast presented by what are called the Old Harbor and the New Harbor, 
is very striking. 

At this point is the only collection of houses that approaches to the dignity of a village. 
. Here the Block Island fleet, the fish-house appertaining thereto, a relief station, one big 
and one smaller hotel, several boarding-houses, half-a-dozen shops, one church and 
two windmills are scattered about very much in a helter-skelter fashion. One of these 
windmills was built upon the main shore at Fall River sixty years age ; twenty years ago it 
stood near the Old Harbor ; and to-day it is a conspicuous landmark in the interior 
of the island. 

From this village, branching out in every direction, are many roads, most of them 
private and blocked up with gates, upon which are located the snug habitations of the 
Islanders, numbering in all about thirteen hundred souls, three-fourths of whom are thrifty 
farmers, while the balance are supported by the harvest of the sea. Barring the massive 
and interminable stone walls which intersect the entire island, the inland landscapes are 
almost invariably composed of undulating pastures, studded with picturesque homes and 
barns and haystacks, the most of them commanding glimpses of the sea. 

From the height of land already mentioned, and known as Beacon Hill, the ocean 
presents nearly a complete circle, broken only by one hill, and wellnigh every house upon 
the island may be distinctly seen, as well as about two hundred sails per day during the 
summer months. Other prominent landmarks are Clay Head, a lofty and solemn promon- 
tory pointing toward the northeast; Pilot Hill, near the northeastern part ; Bush Hill, near 
the Great Pond; the great Bathing Beach, which is nearly two miles long, and as fine as 
any on the Atlantic coast; and the southern cliffs, which are the crowning attraction of the 
island next to the sea air and the ocean scenery. 

These great bulwarks are both imposing and beautiful, and it is in keeping with the 
iitness of things that the highest of them should be surmounted by a first-class modern 
lighthouse, which, though near the brow, cannot be seen from the beach below. Their 
formation is of clay interspersed with boulders, and hence we find here a greater variety of 
colors than at Mount Desert or the Isle of Shoals. The profiles of the cliffs are both 
graceful and fantastic, and when looming against a glowing sky or out of a bank of fog, 
they are imposing to the last degree; and while you may recline upon a carpet of velvety 
grass at their summits, you have below you the everlasting surf of the Atlantic dashing 
wildly among the boulders, or melting in peace upon the sandy shores. But to enjoy this 



NEWPORT AND BLOCK ISLAND. 83 

cliff scenery to perfection, you must look upon it under various aspects — in a wild storm, 
>vhen all the sounds of the shore are absorbed in the dull roar of the sea coming from afar; 
in a heavy fog, when the cliffs have a spectral look, and the scream of the gulls is 
mingled with the washing of unseen breakers; at sunset, when a purple glow rests upon the 
peaceful sea and the rolling hills ; at twilight, when the great fissures are full of gloom and 
mystery, and in the moonlight, when all the objects you see, and all the sounds you hear, 
tend to overwhelm you with amazement and awe. But the air and the ocean are, after all, 
the chief attractions of Block Island — the air bland and bracmg in summer, pure and 
■delicious as nectar in the sunny autumn, and not without its attractions even in the winter 
and early spring; and the ocean, in conjunction with the sky, making glorious pictures, 
thus leading the mind from sublunary things to those that are eternal in the heavens. 

The aborigines of Block Island were a part of the Narragansett nation, and they 
gloried in the fame of their great chieftains, Canonicus, Canonchet, and Miantonomah, the 
iirst of whom it was who sold Aquidneck, now Rhode Island, to the English. It was about 
the year 1676 that the last two of this trio were slain, one of them at Stonington and the 
other at Sachem's Plains, in Connecticut, and with them the Narragansett power virtually 
expired. When the white men first visited Block Island, they found there about sixty large 
wigwams divided into two villages, adjoining which were two hundred acres of land planted' 
with maize; and while the records do not state when these Indians finally left the island, the 
presumption is that it was soon after the whites had fairly obtained possession of their new 
domain. In colonial times the landowners were comparatively few; their estates were 
large, and houses somewhat pretentious; they were waited upon by slaves, and in the habit 
of exchanging formal visits with the great proprietors on the Narragansett shore. 

In modern times, however, we find the land so cut up and subdivided, that a farm of 
one hundred acres is rather a novelty, while the largest proportion range from two to forty 
acres, and the largest on the island contains only one hundred and fifty acres. Contrary 
to the common belief, about three-fourths of the inhabitants are farmers, and the remainder 
fishermen. The houses of the inhabitants are generally after the old New England model, 
one story and a half high, built of wood, and nearly always painted white; the barns, how- 
ever, which are neat and well-kept, are generally built of wood combined with stone walls. 
The stone fences which surround or cross and recross the plantations are noted for their 
.substantial character, and the grazing lands, on account of their neatness and beauty, are 
always attractive. A more complete colony of native Americans does not exist in the 
United States than is to be found on Block Island. They are a clannish race, think them- 
selves as good as any others (in which they are quite right) ; they love their land because 
it is their own; their ambition is to obtain a good, plain support from their own exertions, 
in which they are successful, to a man. They are simple in their habits, and, therefore, 
command respect. They are honest, and neither need nor support any jails. They are 
naturally intelligent, and a much larger proportion of them can read and write than is the 
case in Massachusetts, the reputed intellectual centre of the world. They are industrious, 
and have every needed comfort, and kindhearted to such a degree, that they do not even 
laugh at those summer visitors who have a habit of making themselves ridiculous. In their 
physical appearance the men are brown and hardy, as it becomes those who live in sun- 
shine, mist and storm even from the cradle, and the women are healthy, with bright eyes 
and clear complexions, virtuous and true, and as yet without the pale of the blandish- 
ments and corruptions of fashion. While storing away with a liberal hand a supply of all the 
necessaries of life for their own consumption, the Block Islanders have an eye to the trade 



84 NE WPOR T AND BLOCK ISLAND. 

and send over to Newport and Providence, to Stonington and New London, large supplies 
of cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, grain, poultry and eggs, as well as cod livers for oil, and 
large quantities of sea moss, receiving in return not only money, but all the necessaries of 
foreign growth or production. The fishermen of this island live and appear very much like 
their brother farmers, but naturally have more intercourse with the outside world. 

Very frequently, indeed, we find individuals who are both farmers and fishermen. They 
are a quiet but fearless and hardy race, and what they do not know about the ocean — its 
winds, storms and fogs — is not worth knowing. All the boats in their possession at the 
present time would not number one hundred, and the majority of these are small, but they 
suffice to bring from the sea a large supply of fish annually. 

The two principal varieties are the cod and the blue fish. 

The former are most abundant in May and November, and although not any better by 
nature than the Newfoundland cod, they are taken nearer the shore and cured while per- 
fectly fresh, and hence have acquired a rare reputation. 

There are three banks for the taking of them, ranging from five to ten miles distant. 

The blue fish are taken all through the summer and autumn, and afford genuine sport to 
all strangers who go after them. 

The writer of this once saw sixty boats come to shore in a single day, every one of 
which was heavily laden with blue fish. 

Another valuable fi?h taken is the mackerel, and when they are in the offing in June, the 
Block Island fleet, joined to the stranger fishermen, sometimes presents a most charming 
picture. And as they anchor at night, to use the language of another, under the lee of 
the island, the lights in the rigging, the fantastic forms of the men dressing the fish, and 
the shouts of old shipmates recognizing each other, the splashing of the waves and the 
creaking of the tackle, the whistling of the wind, the fleecy clouds flitting across the face 
of the moon, conspire to make a picture that seems more like a fairy vision than a reality. 

But the sea-faring men of Block Island are not all purely fishermen. Many of them do 
a profitable business as pilots. A goodly number of them are called wreckers, and their 
business is to lend a helping hand and not to rob the unfortunate, when vessels are driven 
upon the shore by stress of weather, or lured to destruction by deceitful fogs. And it 
occasionally happens that we hear of a Block lilander who becomes curious about the 
world at large, and, obtaining command of a ship at New Bedford or New London, circum- 
navigates the globe; but they are always sure to come back to their cherished home better 
satisfied with its charms than ever before. 

The island was discovered by the Florentine Giovanni di Verazzano, in 1524, whfle upon 
a voyage along the coast of North America, under a commission from the French king. 
The name which he gave to it was Claudia, in honor of the king's mother; but as he did 
not land upon it and never saw it afterward, the island was utterly forgotten for wellnigh a 
century. 

After the Dutch had founded New Amsterdam some of them sailed for the northeast on 
a visit to the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and they saw the island also, and it was one of the white- 
haired race, Adrian Blok, or Block, who discovered it, and whose name it has ever since 
borne. Its original owners, the Narragansett Indians, named it Manisses. 

In 1636, while Roger Williams was plantingthe standard of civilization and Christianity 
on the spot where the city of Providence now stands, a certain Boston trader attempted to 
establish a business arrangement with the Indians on Block Island. 

"The cause of our war (according to a writer in the Historical Collections of Massa- 



NEWPORT AND BLOCK ISLAND, 



85 



•chusetts) against the Block Islanders was for taking away the life of one Master John 
Oldham, who made it his common course to trade among the Indians. He coming to 
Block Island to drive a trade with them, the islanders came into his boat, and having got 
a fine view of his commodities which gave them good content, consulted how they might 
destroy him and his company, to the end that they might clothe their bloody flesh with his 
lawful garments. 

"The Indians, having laid their plot, came to trade as pretended; watching their oppor- 
-tunities, they knocked him in the head and martyred him most barbarously, to the great 
grief of his poor, distressed servants, who, by the providence of God, were saved. 

"The island lying in the roadway to Lord Sey and Lord Brooke's plantation, a certain 
.seaman, called John Gallap, master of a small navigation, standing along to the Mathe- 
-thusis Bay, and seeing a boat under sail close aboard the island, and perceiving the sails to 







si 




THE BIG BOULDER. 



bo unskilfully managed, bred in him a jealousy whether the island Indians had not blood- 
ily taken the life of our own countrymen, and made themselves masters of their goods. 
.Suspect.ng this, he bore up to them, and approaching near them, was confirmed that his 
jealousy was just. Seeing Indians in the boat, and knowing her to be the vessel of Master 
Oldham, and not seeing him there, he gave fire upon t'nem and slew some; others leaped 
overboard, besides two whom he preserved alive and brought to the bay. 

*'The blood of the innocent called for vengeance. God stirred up the heart of the 
honored Governor, Master Henry Vane, and the rest of the worthy magistrates, to send 
for the one hundred well-appointed soldiers under the command of Captain John Hendi- 
cott, and in company with him that had command, Captain John Underbill, Captaia Nathan 
Turner, Captain William Jenningson, besides other inferior officers." The result of the 
■expedition was, "having s'ain fourteen and maimed others, the balance having fled, we 
embarked ourselves, and set sail for Seasbrooke Fort, where we lay through distress of 
-weather four days, then we departed. '' 



86 ■ NEWPORT AND BLOCK ISLAND. 

Soon after that event the island became tributary to Massachusetts, and Winlhrop 
informs us that on the zyih of January, 1638, the Indians of Block Island sent three men, 
with ten fathoms of wampum as a part of their tribute, and by way of atoning for their 
wicked conduct. In 1658 the General Court of Massachusetts granted all their right to 
Block Island to Governor John Endicott and three others, who in 1660 sold it to a com- 
pany of persons, and the first settlement was commenced in the following year. 

The story of the sale was duly written out at the time, and after the settlement had 
been effected, was placed among the files of the island, where it is to be found at the 
present time. 

In 1663 the island was annexed by the charter of Charles II. to the colony of Rhode 
Island. In 1672 it was incorporated as the town of New Shoreham, and so named, it is 
supposed, because some of the prominent settlers had come from the town of Shoreham, in 
Sussex County, England. 

From the start it had conferred upon itself more ample powers of self-government 
than had been conferred upon any town in ihe colony, for the reason that '* they were liv- 
inge remote, being so far in ye sea," and because of "ye longe spelles of weather," which 
sometimes rendered it difiicult to reach the island. When war was proclaimed between 
France and England, in 1689, Block Island came in for rather more than its share of the 
attention of the enemies of England. 

In July of that year, as we learn from the records of Massachusetts, three French 
privateers came to Block Island, having among their crew one William Trimming, who 
treacherously betrayed and decoyed those he met at sea, pretending they were Englishmen,, 
as he had a perfect use of the English tongue. 

He was sent on shore, and by plausible accounts succeeded in obtaining a pilot to 
conduct the vessels into the harbor; whereupon the people, who imagined no treachery, 
were immediately made prisoners of war. 

They remained on the island a week, plundering houses, stripping people of their 
clothing, goods, etc., and destroying their bedding. 

The same Trimming was afterward shot dead on the spot (it was thought through sur- 
prise) by Mr. Stephen Richardson, of Fisher"s Island, lying near New London, where he had 
gone with others of the crew on a similar expedition, he having his gun partly concealed 
behind him, and not laying it down when commanded. 

Mr. Richardson was much blamed at the time for it. In 1690 the French again 
landed on the island, plundered it, and carried off some of the inhabitants. Other 
attacks were made from time to time during that and the subsequent wars between 
England and France — viz.: in 1744 and I7'54, as well as during the Revolutionary War, 
and that of 181 2, the island having been, from its position, peculiarly exposed to them,, 
and it did not obtain a lasting peace until after all hostilities were ended. 

Mr. W. H. Potter, while discussing the hostile demonstrations alluded to above, gives 
us this information: 

" In 1775, H.B.M. man-of-war Rose, Captain Wallace, with several tenders, was 
stationed to guard the island, lest the islanders should transport their stock and stores to 
the mainland, these being wanted to supply the British ships. Notwithstanding the vigi- 
lance of Commodore Wallace, the authorities of Rhode Island, under the superintendence 
of Colonel James Rhodes, brought off the live stock from Block Island and landed them 
at Stonington, whence they were driven into Rhode Island. It was to punish Stonington 
for this raid that Wallace, it is supposed, bombarded Stonington Point in the fall of 1775. 



NEWPORT AND BLOCK ISLAND. 



87 



I have conversed with a person who was present when the Rose made her attack upon 
Stonington, and he said of her destination, ' The next day the Rose set sail for station 
off Block Island, where I understood she was stationed to prevent the cattle of the island 
rom beinf removed.' As Newport was in possession of the enemy, the Block Islanders 
had their full share of trials." 




BELOW THE LIGHTHOUSE. 

That the people were intensely loyal to the colonies is abundantly shown by the old 
records, but, as subsequent events proved, they paid for their patriotism by much persecu- 
tion. From a communication sent to us on this and other topics by Dr. T. H. Mann, we 
cull the following : 

"In the August of 1775 the General Assembly ordered all the cattle and 
theep to be brought off the island, except a sufficient supply for their immediate use. 



88 . NE WPOR T A ND BLOCK ISLAND, 

and two hundred and fifty men were sent to bring them off to the mainland, and such as 
were suitable for market immediately sent to the army, and such as were not, sold at either 
private or public sale. Total number of sheep and lambs removed was 1,908, 
and the amount paid to the inhabitants was £534 9s. 6d. out of the general treasury. By 
an act of General Assembly of May, 1776, the inhabitants of New Shoreham were ex- 
horted to remove from the island, but there is no record of any general attention being 
paid to the exhortation, but some few did leave the island, and their petitions to the Gen- 
eral Assembly for permits to return, collect the rents and look after their property, were 
quite frequently presented, and usually referred to the general commanding the defences 
of the coast of the colony. 

" There are a number of instances upon record of the abuse by individuals of the 
rights of neutrality. The royal forces occupied the island and held direct communication 
with it for eight years, and it was not a difficult matter for the hardy boatmen with their 
open boats to procure supplies from the mainland under cover of ' needed supplies' for 
their own use, and sell to good advantage to the troops who occupied the island cr touched 
at island for such supplies. 

" At several different times the boatmen lost their whole cargo by confiscation to the 
colonial forces, who eventually put an end to the smuggling. There is no evidence that 
this smuggling was carried on to any extent only by a few individuals. . . . 

" An exchange of prisoners took place between the contending forces upon Block 
Island several times, its location making it very convenient for such exchanges, 

" The island furnished several distinguished men to the Revolutionary forces, and one 
lady, who figured very conspicuously as the wife of General Nathaniel Greene. 

"George Washington Greene, in his Life of General Nathaniel Greene, says: 'The maiden's 
name was Catherine Litdefield and she was a niece of the Governor's wife, the Catherine Ray 
of Franklin's letters. The courtship sped swiTtly and smoothly, and more than once in the 
course of it he followed her to Block Island, where, as long after her sister told me, the 
time passed gleefully in merrymakings, of which dancing always formed the principal part.* 
She was an intimate acquaintance of George Washington's Avife Martha, meeting her 
many times at army headquarters whenever the army rested long enough to permit the 
officers' wives to join them. In the Life of General Greene above alluded to, we read: 
* And an intimacy sprung up between her and Mrs. Washington which, like that between 
their husbands, ripened into friendship, and continued unimpaired through life. 

" His first child, still in the cradle, was named George Washington, and the second, 
who was born the ensuing year, was named Martha Washington.' " 

In the old times of which we are speaking the lottery was considered a legitimate 
means to be used for raising funds for any undertaking that required an extraordinary out- 
lay of money. Even the stern old Puritans of this colony looked upon the lottery as 
legitimate when its gains were to-be applied to a laudable purpose. 

It has already been mentioned that the poet .Dana made Block Island the scene of 
his most brilliant poem; and although his local descriptions are poetically accurate, and 
he makes much of a burning ship, we must question the assertion that his hero, Matthew 
Lee the Buccaneer, 

" Held in this isle unquestioned sway." 

With eoual ability, but in a different vein, the poet Whittier has also celebrated the lead- 
in"- romantic legend associated with Block Island, but he made the misfake of charging the 
B^ock Llanders with some acts of wickedness of which they were never guilty. We now 



NEWPORT AND BLOCK ISLAND. 89 

propose to give a summary of the facts connected with the famous vessel called the " Pala- 
tine," which we are permitted to take from an elaborate paper prepared by Mr. E. C. Perry, 
-who is, on account of his researches in that direction, the highest authority extant. 

There is much difference of opinion concerning the date, some placing it as early as 
1720, while others suppose it to be as late as 1760. Nothing definite can be determined, 
l)ut Mr. Perr}''s grandmother, who is now seventy-six years of age and retains her faculties 
in a remarkable degree, remembers distinctly her grandmother telling her repeatedly that 
she was twelve years old when the *' Palatine" came ashore. 

If this reckoning can be depended on, the " Palatine '' must have been wrecked during 
the winter of i75o-'5i. She came ashore, as tradition reports, on a bright Sabbath morn- 
ing between Christmas and New Year s, striking on the outer end of Sandy Point, the 
■northern extremity of the island. The unfortunate passengers, who doubtless commenced 
this voyage with bright, hopes of a happy future in the New World, whose attractions at 
that time were currently believed by the common people of Europe to vie with those of the 
Garden of Eden before the fall, were doomed to suffer inconceivable miseries. 

For six weeks they lay off and on the coasts of Delaware, during a season of peculiarly 
fme weather, almost within/sight of the region they had hoped to make their home, while 
an unnecessary and enforced starvation was daily reducing their numbers, and leading the 
survivors to pray for death as a welcome release from further suffering. 

The emigrants, many of whom were quite wealthy, had with them money and valua- 
bles, and the officers of the ship, headed by the chief mate, the captain having died or been 
killed during the passage, cut off the passengers' supplies of provisions and water, though 
there was an ample sufficiency of both on board. The pangs of hunger and thirst compelled 
the unarmed, helpless, starving wretches to buy, at exorbitant prices, the miserable frag- 
ments that the crew chose to deal out to them. 

Twenty guilders for a cup of water, and fifty-six dollars for a ship's biscuit, soon re- 
duced the wealth of the most opulent among them, and completely impoverished the 
poorer ones. 

With a fiendish atrocity almost unparalleled in the annals of selfishness, the officers 
and the crew enforced their rules with impartial severity, and in a few weeks all but a few 
who had been among the wealthiest were penniless. 

Soon the grim skeleton starvation stared them in the face, and as day succeeded day, 
the broad waters of the Adantic closed over those who, a few weeks before, had been envied 
for their good fortune and their fair prospects. 

At last, even the brutal officers whose villainy no words in our language can ade- 
•quately express, became satisfied that they had obtained all the plunder that was to be had, 
and left the ship in boats, landing, perhap.s, on Long Island, on their way to New York, 
carrying with them, no doubt, a remorse thit preyed upon their souls, as hunger and thirst 
had gnawed at the vitals of their hapless victims. 

The famished, dying remnant of the once prosperous and happy company had no con- 
trol over the ship, and she drifted wherever the wind and tide might take her. How lono- 
she drifted with the wintry winds whisding through her cordage, and the billows around her, 
we shall never know. 

Drifting here, drifting there, land always in sight, yet always inaccessible; some dying 
from weakness, some from surfeit, when the crew had gone and the provisions were left 
unguarded, all more or less delirious and some raving mad. When the ship struck on 
Sandy Point, the wreckers went out to her in boats and removed all the passengers that 



90 



NEWPORT AND BLOCK ISLAND. 



had survived starvation, disease and despair, except one woman, who obstinately refused to 
leave the wreck. The poor, miserable skeletons were taken to the homes of the islanders 
and hospitably cared for. Edward Sands and Captain Simon Ray were at that time the 
leading men on the island, and it was to their homes that most of the unfortunate people 
were taken; and on a level spot of ground at the southwest part of the island which then 
formed part of Capt. Ray's estate, are still to be seen some of the graves where those who 
died were buried. 

Edward Sands was Mr. Perry's grandmother's great-grandfather, and when the sur- 
vivors of those who were taken to his house had sufficiently recovered to leave the island, 
one of them insisted upon his accepting some memento of their gratitude for the kindness 
shown to them during their stay, and gave to his little daughter a dress pattern of India 
calico. Calicoes or chintz patches, as dress-patterns of the Eastern calico were then called, 
were rare in those days, even among the wealthy classes, and a litUe Block Island girl could 
not easily forget her first calico dress, especially when the gift was connected withcircum, 
tances so unusual and so peculiar. 

This anecdote, simple and unimportant as it may seem, has a bearing on the subject^ 
for it disposes of the supposition that none of the "Palatine's" passengers ever left the island . 
Where they settled, or where their descendants are, is one of those mysteries that hover 
like a dark cloud over the subject, and seem to preclude all hope of it ever being com- 
pletely unravelled. One, and one only, of the passengers that lived to tell of their living 
death on board this prison-ship, remained permanently on the island. This passenger was 
a woman whose surname is not known. Her given name was Kate, and owing to her 
unusual height she was commonly spoken of as Long Kate, to distinguish her from, 
another woman of the same name, who was generally known as Kate Short. Both women 
were more frequently called *' Cattern," a corruption of Catherine. 

Long Cattern married a colored slave belonging to Mr. Nathaniel Littlefield, and by 
him had three children, Cradle, Mary, and Jennie. These all died on the island. Jennie 
never had any children; Cradle had five children, but none of them were ever married. 
Mary also had a large family, but they all moved away, with the exception of two sons 
whose children moved away, and a daughter Lydia, who married and left several children, 
one of whom, familiarly known r,s Jack, still lives on the island. Long Cattern had her 
fortune told before she sailed by a seer of her native land, who prophesied that she would 
marry a very "dark-skinned " man. 

The "Palatine," it would seem, merely grounded on the extreme edge of the point, and 
as the tide rose she floated off, and the wreckers, making fast to her in their boats, towed 
her ashore in a little bend farther down the beach, now known as Beach Cove. An east- 
erly wind springing up, and appearances indicating that in spite of all efforts that could be 
made she would drive out to sea, one of the wreckers set her on fire. The name of many 
respectable people, natives of Block Island, and others, are in our possession, who have 
declared that they have frequently witnessed the appearance of burning ships off the shores 
of the island, and there are very few of its inhabitants who do not believe in the romantic 
legend. Several persons have attempted to account for the phenomenon on scientific 
principles. One of them, Dr. Aaron C. Willes, who was formerly a prominent physician 
on Block Island, wrote a letter in 1811, in which he asserted that he had seen this radiance 
himself a number of times, and after describing its peculiarities, but without hazarding 
any speculations, he makes this remark : " The cause of this roving brightness is a curious 
subject for philosophical investigation. Some, perhaps, will suppose it depends upon a- 



NEWPORT AND BLOCK ISLAND. 91 

peculiar modification of electricity ; others upon the inflammation of hydrogenous gas; 
but there are probably many other means unknown to us by which light may be devolved 
from those materials with which it is latently associated by the power of chemical 
affinities." 

A full account of the shipwrecks that have happened upon its shores would take more 
space than we can now spare. During the last twenty years, however, there have been no 
less than sixty, and the records show that they have been quite frequent during all the 
years of the present century. 

The loss of property has of course been' great, but the lives lost have not been as 
numerous as some would imagine. In 1805 a ship called the "Ann Hope" came ashore on 
the south side, and three lives were lost; in 1807 the ship *' John Davis" was purposely driven 
ashore by the captain, w^hen the steward was murdered for fear that he would tell tales. 

Not long afterward three vessels came ashore in one night, but na lives were lost 
except those of one captain and his son, whose bodies were washed ashore clasped in each, 
other's arms. 

In 1830 the " Warrior," a passenger packet running between Boston and New York,^ 
and accompanied by another vessel of the same line, anchored off Sandy Point one evening 
in a calm. During the night the wind sprung up, leaving both vessels on a lee shore. 
The other vessel got under way and went out, signalling the " Warrior " to follow, but it is 
supposed the watch on board the ** Warrior" were asleep, and when they awoke such a gale 
of wind was raging that they could not get under way, and that morning she dragged her 
anchors and went ashore, and every soul on board was lost. The captain, who was an 
expert swimmer, got ashore and brought his little boy with him, but the child's hat blowings 
off, he ran back after it, and the sea coming in rapidly, they were both lost. 

The wreck of the steamship *' Metis " off the shores of Watch Hill, during the latter part 
of August, 1872, is well remembered, together with the fearful suffering and loss of life there 
sustained. During the morning of August 31, the drift from the wreck commenced driving 
up on the west shore of Block Island. A large amount of the drift consisted of fruit and 
other articles of a perishable nature. The property was carted up in heaps on the beach. 
There were many cart-loads of tea, soap, flour, boxes of butter, cheese, kegs of lard and 
tobacco, barrels of liquors, crates of peaches, boxes of lemons, barrels of apples, cases of 
dry-goods, picture-frame mouldings, and a large quantity of drift-wood, broken furniture 
and general debris. A large, fine-looking horse was washed up with the halter still 
fastened to the stanchion to which he was tied. About twelve o'clock on the same night 
the body of an infant, apparently about six months old, was found, and immediately carried 
to a house near, when a coffin was procured, and the next day the child was buried. The 
night-clothing which was on the child was carefully preserved for identification, but its 
father or mother never came to shed a tear over the little grave, as they had probably gone 
down with the ill-fated vessel. 

Two life-saving stations have recently been built upon the island, one at its eastern 
extremity, the other at its western. These stations are supplied with mortars for throwing 
lines across the ship wrecked, and with life-boats calculated to ride out safely to any sea 
that may be raised, and all necessary apparatus for rescuing the lives of mariners who may 
be wrecked upon the shores. The buildings will furnish shelter, lodging and victuals to 
those who may be unfortunate enough to be wrecked upon th^ island. During the winter 
season and stormy weather, a crew of six men to each station is in constant readiness to 
meet any emergency. 



g2 NE WPOR T AND BLOCK I SLA ND. 

The stories and legends of the wreckers, so often told and written, are calculated to leave 
very erroneous impressions of the humane exertions of the wrecking bands scattered at 
intervals along our whole Atlantic coast. 

Althcuc^h many of these bands have become quite wealthy in their avocation, it is just 
as true that they have saved millions upon millions of dollars to the owners of wrecked 
property, which, without the aid of the bold wrecker, would have been entirely lost. There 
beino- two *' gangs" upon the island, it naturally follows that considerable rivalry exists 
between them, which redounds to the advantage of the owners of any vessel which chances 
to become a wreck on the coast. From shipwrecks to religion the transition is not only 
natural, but should be profitable ; and so a little information on the churches of Block 
Island will not be out of place in this paper. There are two church societies and two 
churches. They are both of the Baptist persuasion, and founded in 1772; prior to 1818 
they were united, but about that time one Enoch Rose dissented, whereupon a " war of 
the Roses " was commenced, which ended in two parties, the Associate and the Free- Will 
Baptists; and whether this Rosy war was any more beneficial than some others of like char- 
acter, is a question that cannot now be setded. 

One thing, however, may be asserted with safety, and that is that the islanders are a 
■church-going people, and have generally been fortunate in having good and capable men 
as religious teachers. 

During the summer of 1875 an extensive eating-house was established at the harbor 
for the convenience of transient visitors, the keeper of which is an ex-preacher, who takes 
•delight in devoting his establishment to religious services on Sundays. 

Block Island is entirely without wild animals — not even a rabbit or a woodchuck will 
ever appear to startle the tourist on his rounds. The traditionary lore has gone so far as 
that the oldest inhabitant once saw a fox, but that individual was found to have come over 
from Point Judith on floating ice in a severe winter. Thanks to Saint Patrick, there are no 
snakes, but any number of toads and frogs. Wild fowl, such as geese, brant, ducks and 
■others, were once numerous in the spring and autumn, stopping here to rest while migrating, 
but they have been frightened away by the roar of civilization, which has already got thus 
far out to sea. 

Loons, in large numbers, sometimes winter in the bay that lies between Clay Head 
and the harbor. They arrive in the aututnn, soon lose their wing feathers, when they are 
for several weeks unable to fly and can only escape from their enemies by diving. It is a 
singular circumstance that one winter a great many hundreds of them were caught by a 
iield of floating ice and driven toward the shores, where they were easily killed by the native 
sportsmen. 



93 



MAIN LINE. 



JAMAICA. 

g3^ miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph, Gas, etc. Fare, 3oxents; excursion, 50 
cents; I month, ^6.75 ; 3 months, $19 ; 6 months, ;^34.50; 12 months, ^55. 

A. B. Pettit (Jamaica Hotel), 30 guests, $8 to ^10 per week. Private Boarding Houses. Mrs. A.^ 
Napier, 8 guests. Mrs. F. G. Grossman, 15 guests. Mrs. Susan Johnson, 10 guests, ^6 to $S per week. 
Mrs. Amanda Batter, 8 guests, ^6 to $S per week. The newspapers published here are the Lotig- Island 
Democrat, Loug Island Farmer, and the yamaica Standard. 

Churches.— Reformed Dutch, Presbyterian, Episcopal (Grace Church), Methodist, Baptist, German 
Lutheran, Roman Catholic. 

Schools.— Union Hall Seminary (Female), Miss A. P. Townsend. Maple Hall Institute (Male), E. 
Vienot Public School. St, Monica's, R. C. School. 

QUEENS. 

13I miles from Long Island City. 300 and 400 inhabitants. Post Office and Telegraph. Fare, 40 
cents ; excursion, 70 cents ; i month, $7.50 ; 3 months, $20.75 ; 6 months, $37.50 ; 12 months, $60. 

B. Lane's Hotel, near the station. 

HYDE PARK. 

i6f miles from Long Island City. Population, 100. Fare, 50 cents ; excursion, 90 cents ;: 
I month, $8 ; 3 months, $22.25 ; 6 months, $40.50; 12 months, $65. 

MINEOLA. 

19 miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Population, 200. Daily trains 
east and west. Fare, 55 cents ; excursion, 95 cents ; i month, $8.75 ; 3 months, $24 ; 6 months, 
$43.50; 12 months, $70. 

Hotel. — Mineola Hotel. Alfred Areson, Prop. 20 guests. Rates from |6 to $8, 

Boarding House. — Mrs. Wm. Smith, 10 guests, $4 to $7 per week. 

GARDEN CITY. 

19 miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph, Gas, etc. Fare 55 cents; excursion, 95 
cents; I month, $8.75 ; 3mon;hs, $24; 6 months, ^43.50; 12 months, ^70. 
Garden City Hotel, F. E. Nickerson, loo guests. ^3 per day. 
For private board, address E. C. Poole, Postmaster. 

HEMPSTEAD. 

20| miles from Long Island City. Population about 3,500. Telegraph and Post Office, Gas, etc. Churches,. 
Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, and African Methodist. Gas-lights, Public 
Halls, and Fire Department. Trains each way daily. Two newspapers. Enquirer and Queens County 
Sentinel. Fare, 60 cents; excursion, $1; i month, $9; 3 months, $24.50; 6 months, $44.50; 
12 months, $72. 

Hotels.— Hewlett's Hotel, Mrs. Eliza Hewlett, Prop., 30 guests ; price, $10. European Hotel,. 



94 MAIN LINE. 

James Whaley & Son, Prop., 20 transient. Central Hotel, John B. Pettit, 30 transient. Sammis 
Hotel, Chas. Sammis, 15, $8 to $10. 

Boarding Houses. — Mrs. J. Mitchell Hewlett accommodates 20 ; price, $8. William Ketcham, 
12, $6 to $8. Mrs. Stephen Bedell, 5 to 7, $5 to $8. 

Hotels and Boarding Houses about 5 minutes from Depot. 

WESTBURY. 

22 miles from Long Island City. Post Office. Population about 700. Trains each way daily. 
Fare, 60 cents ; excursion, $1.10; 6 months, $49 ; yearly, $75. 

Hotel. — B. Powers. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Jacob Hicks, 8 guests. Charles A. Mott. 12. Richard Titus, 10. 
Richard Willets, 15. Rates range from ^5 to $7. E. P. Lewis, 8 guests, $5 to $^ per week. 

HICKSVILLE. 

25I miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Population, 500. Trains each 
way daily. Fare, 70 cents ; excursion, $1.30 ; 6 months, $53 ; 12 months, $81. 

Grand Central Hotel, William Kloenne, Prop., 35 guests, rates from $6 to $8. 

CENTRAL PARK. 

28^ miles from Long Island City. Post Office. Population about 200. Fifty or sixty residents. 
Fare, 80 cents; excursion, $1.45 ; 6 months, $54; 12 months, $83. 
Hotel. — Chas. Bertrand. 
A pretty little settlement in a fertile place. Good gardens. 

FARMINGD ALE. 

30^ miles from Long Island City. Post Office, Telegraph. Population, 750. Trains each way daily. 
Fare, 85 cents ; excursion, ^1.55 ; 6 months ^56 ; 12 months, ^85. 

Hotel. — Farmingdale Hotel. 20 guests. Jno. Noon, Prop. Price $5 to ^6. 

Private Boarding Houses.— Mrs. E. H. Smith, 7 guests; price, t\io $y William Dupignac, 25; 
price, ^5 to $(i. W. F. Newcomb, 5 guests ; $\ to $5. 

Churches. — Methodist, Episcopal, Protestant, Quaker Meeting House and Free Methodist. 

WEST DEER PARK. 

35X miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Population, 75. Fare, ;^i ; excursions 
$1.80; six months, ^58; twelve months, ^89. 

A new station for taking water and farm produce. 

DEER PARK. 

36f miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Population about 100. Trains 
each way daily. Fare, $1.05 ; excursion, $1.85 ; six months, $59 ; yearly, $90. 

Hotel.— Deer Park Hotel, F. W. Rohman proprietor, accommodates about 20 ; rates from 
5 to 7 dollars. 

Private Boarding House.— Mrs. Gideon Seaman, 14 guests, rates from 5 to 7 dollars. 

BRENTWOOD. 

4ii miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Population, 150. Trains each 
way daily. Fare, $1.15 ; excursion, $2.10 ; six months, $62 ; 12 months, $95. 
Episcopal Church. Union School, 



MAIN LINE. 95 

CENTRA'L ISLIP. 

43J miles from Long Island City. Post Office. Population about 100. Trains each way daily. 
Fare, $1.20; excursion, $2.20; six months, $63; twelve months, $97. 
Episcopal and Methodist churches. Free Public School, 

Boarding Houses. — T. E. Bridget accommodates 6, Mr. Adams 6, Mrs. Hatch 4 guests. Prices for all 
$6 per week. 

LAKELAND. 

48 miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Fare, $1.35 ; excursion, ^2.40; six 
months, ^^69 ; a year, ^io6. 

Hotel. — Ronkonkoma Hotel (late Carpenter's), 50 to 60 guests. Mr. Chater, owner. Distant from 
station 2 miles. Private Boarding Houses. — Geo. Raynor, 10 guests. Rates from 6 Id 8 dollars. 

' Lake Ronkonkoma, for the season of 1880, will be more attractive than ever on account of the improve- 
ments in the surrounding property, and the better accommodations furnished. The Ronkonkoma Hotel has 
changed hands and will be conducted in the very best style, besides being refurnished and refitted inside and 
outside. It will be a delightful house to spend the summer in. There will be two fast expresses each 
way daily with parlor cars attached. 

The Lake is elsewhere described as to its many attractions. They can be fully enjoyed at the hotel 
which is upon its border, and which is fully equipped with all facilities for boating and fishing. 

HOLBROOK. 

Holbrook is about fifty miles from New York City, on the Long Island Railroad, with a church, 
eichool and post-office, also a large cigar factory now in successful operation. The soil is better in 
this vicinity than in some parts of Long Island, and has been made to produce all kinds of vegeta- 
bles, grains, etc. It is also perfectly healthy, being free from marshes, consequently no miasmatic 
influences prevail. The drives to the beautiful lake Ronkonkoma, two miles north, and through 
Lincoln ave., in a direct line five miles south, to the villages along the great South bay, render the 
place a pleasant resort for families desiring a quiet retreat in the summer time. 

YAPHANK. 

59 miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Population, 400. Trains each 
way daily. Fare, $1.65 ; excursion, $2.95; six months, $76; yearly, $117. 
Churches. — Episcopal and Presbyterian. 
Public Building : Suffolk County Alms House. Stores : One. 

MANOR. 

65 1 miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Population, 500. Trains each 
way daily. Fare, $1.80 ; excursion, $3.30. 

Hotel.— Manorville Hotel, Prop. A. B. Lane, accommodates 15. Rates from ^5 to ^7. 
Private Boarding Houses.— Mrs. M. Moger, accommodates, 6 to 8. E. V. Campbell, 12, R. T. 
Osborn, 6 to 8. Rates from $5 to ^7. 

Churches.— Presbyterian and Methodist. 

BAITING HOLLOW. 

69I miles from Long Island City. Population, 175. Post Office. Trains each way daily Fare 
$1.95 ; excursion, $3.50. ' 

Private Boarding Houses.-J. Frank Corwin, 25; John L. Young, 10; John W. Fanning 15 • 
Isaac Price, 8 ; John Edwards, 5. Rates from 5 to 7 dollars, according to room and time. ' ' 

Congregational Church. 

RIVERHEAD. 

731 miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Trains each way daily. Popula- 
^on, 2,678. lare, $2.05; excursion, $3.70. 

HoTELS—Griffin Hotel accommodates 75 to 80; H. L. Griffin, proprietor. Suflfolk Hotel 
accommodates 50 ; George W. Convin, proprietor. Long Island House accommodates 70 ; J. P. Terry 
proprietor. Rates from 8 to 10 dollars, according to room ard time 



96 MAIN LINE. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Mrs. E. L. Vail accommodates 20 j^uests ; Mrs. Sweezy, 30 guests p 
John Benjamin, 20 guests ; Henry Howell, 20 guests. Rates from 6 to 8 dollars per week. 

Has six churches : Episcopal, Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, and 
Swedenborgian. 

The Riverhead News is published here. 

JAMESPORT. 

783^ miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Trains each way daily. Population 
475. Fare, ^2.20 ; excursion, $4.00. 

Hotels. — Miamogue House, I. Seymour Corwin, Prop., accommodates 30 to 35 guests. Rates 
from 7 to 8 dollars. Sunny Side House, A. H. Corwin, Prop., accommodates 30 guests. Rates from 
7 to 8 dollars. Bay Side House, B. H. Jones, Prop., 30 guests. Rates $7 to $9. 

Private Boarding Houses.— L. H. Terry, 40 guests ; E. B. Youngs, 30 guests; William H. Corwin, 10 
guests; "William Halleck, 12 guests; Richard Albertson, 20 guests ; I. F. Robinson, 8 guests ; J. Woodhull, 
15 guests; S. R. Downs, 10 guests; M. T. Benjamin, 27 guests. Rales from ^5 to ^7. 

Churches. — Congregational and Methodist. 

AQUEBOGUE. 

\\ miles from Jamesport station and 3! miles from Riverhead depot. Post Office. 
Private Boarding Houses. — E. H. Wells accommodates 30 guests ; L. H. Terry, 40 ; G. W- 
Young, 25 ; P. F. Terry, 10 ; E. B. Young, 25; George O. Reeve, 20. Rates from ^5 to ^7. 
Church. — Congregational. 

NORTHVILLE. 

2 miles from Jamesport station and 5 miles from Riverhead. Success Post Office. 
Private Boarding Houses at this place. Mr. R. Terry, 20 ; Simeon Benjamin, 20. Rates 
from $5 to I7. 

Church. — Congregational. 

M ATTITUCK. 

83 miles from Long island City. Population, 800. Post Office and Telegraph. Trains each 
way daily. Fare, $2.30 ; excursion, $4.10. 

Hotel — Mattituck House, George M. Betts, Prop., 50 guests. Rates from ;^8 to ^10. One mmute s 
walk from depot. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Seymour H. Tuthill, 10 guests. George A. Cox, 10. Mrs. R. H 
Hazard, 10. Rates from $6 to $8. 

Three churches : Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopal. 

CUTCHOGUE. 

85I miles from Long Island City. Population, 800. Post Office. Trains each way daily. 
Fare, $2.35 ; excursion, $4.25. 

Hotel. — New Suffolk Hotel, Wm. McNish, Prop., accommodates about 90 guests. 2| miles 
from depot. 

Private Boarding Houses.— H. H. Tuthill, 8 guests. Mrs, E, E. Hortcn, 15 guests. Mrs. J. G.. 
Tuthill, 25. Mr. H. B. Halsey, 6. Mr. O. H. Tuthdl, 15. Mr. Foster R, Fanning, 20. Mr. H. B, 
Tuthill, 30. 1. 1. Tuthill, 10. Ira B. Tuthill, Jr., 15. Capt. John Jennings, 15. ' Rates range from $1 to $8.. 
Four Churches : Roman Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational. 

PECONIC. 

88^ miles from Long Island City. Fare, $2.45-, excursion, $4.40. 
Post Office. Population, 400. Trains each way daily. 



MAIN LINE. 97 

SOUTHOLD. 

90;^ miles from Long Island City and Brooklyn. Post Office and Telegraph. Popul- 
trains each way daily. Fare, ^2.50; excursion, ^4; 50. 

Hotel. — Judd's Hotel, F. L. Judd, Prop., accommodates 75 guests. Rates from $1 t • 
minutes walk from the depot. Conway's Hotel. 

Private Boarding Houses.— Mrs. Frederick Maxwell accommodates 40 guests. William H. ^ 
15. S. Bailey Corry, 20. Capt. Benjamin Wells, 10. G. W. Pulys, 10 guests. A. A. Ward, 10 guesu 
B. T. Payne, 10 guests. Rates from $6, $8 and $10. 

Churches. — Presbyterian, Methodist, Roman Catholic and Universalist. 

Newspaper. — The Long Island Traveler is published here. 

GREENPORT. 

943^ miles from Long Island City and Brooklyn. Post Office and Telegraph. Bank. Population, 
■2,500. 2 trains each way daily. Fare, ^2.60; excursion, ^4.70. 

Hotels. — Clark House, Misses Clark's, 40 guests. Rates from $10 to $12, according to room 
and time. \ mile from depot. Wyandank, C. C. Wright, Prop., 75. Rates from I7 to $12. Peconic 
Flouse, 80. Burr House, Mrs. Burr, Prop. , 20. Rates from ;^7 to ^12. Greenport House, A. C. SuUay, 
Prop., 30. Rates from $j to $10. Booth House, Chas. H. Booth, 70. Rates ^S to ^10. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Mrs. Roe, 50 guests. Mrs. Jane Post, 8. Mrs. M. J. Ashbey, 10. 
Mrs. S. H. Townsend, 8. Mrs. Ackly, 10. Rates from $7 to $10, according to room and time. 
James Timpsons, 20 guests, $7 to $10. 

Churches. — Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, and 
Xutheran. 

Newspapers published : Suffolk Times and Republican Watchman. 

SHELTER ISLAND, 

Directly south of Greenport, comprises 8,000 acres. The shores of the island are very irregular. Upon 
all sides bold, rugged cliffs and headlands project into the water, and creeks and inlets penetrate far 
into the interior. The surface is shellj^ and rolling, some portions rising to considerable elevation. 
The whole of the island presents the most charming variety of hill and dale, groves, bays and creeks 
to be found along the entire length of Long Island. Gardiner's bay on the east and Peconic bay on 
the west, both afford excellent opportunities for yachting. The waters are "sufficiently deep to give 
anchorage to large sized vessels, and are a favorite rendezvous for various yachting clubs. The air 
is pure, tonic and bracing, and, while protected from the rough blasts of the ocean, has sufficient of 
the healing and strengthening qualities of the sea. The bays afford good fishing ; the principal fish 
■caught are bass, blue, black and flat fish. Also Spanish mackerel, porgies, and weak fish or chequet. 
A beautiful sandy beach, with sloping bottom, surrounds the island and offers unsurpassed facilities 
for bathing, healthful and free from danger. The roads are good, and all the drives are charming. 
The Shelter Island Camp Meeting Association own a property of over 300 acres, situated directly 
opposite Greenport, which is known as Prospect, an appropriate name, on account of the extensive 
views it affords. The ground slopes gradually from the beach to a height of over 200 feet, upon which 
an observatory has been erected. From it a magnificent view is obtained, embracing Greenport and 
Orient, Long Island Sound for a distance of fifty miles, with hundreds of vessels passing daily, Gar- 
diner's bay and island, Montauk Point and the ocean on the east ; Sag Harbor and the ocean south, 
and Long Island and the shore of Connecticut again to the west for from twenty to thirty miles. 

Hotels. — The Manhanset House is the finest hotel east of Brighton Beach. It has capacity for 
over 200 guests. Its location is one of the finest on the whole island, and it is as well kept as any 
first class watering-place hotel in the country. S12 to S15 per week. Prospect House, 150 guests, 
George H. Shaffer, manager, %\i to $15. Private: Bay View House, 40, also Large Restaurant ; 
Mrs. Nevins, 25 ; Mrs. Boardman, 20 ; Mr. Walters, 30 ; terms, $9 to $10. 

These and Prospect House are near Camp Meeting grounds, which is contained in a beautiful 
amphitheatre of 15 acres of grove ; Chapel on the entrance. Near the ground are ten furnished 
Cottages to rent, $150 to $300 for the season. Three churches. Ferry connects with all trains. 



98 SAG HARBOR BRANCH. 

ORIENT. 

A great deal of produce and a world offish are shipped hence to New York. On Orient Point,, 
the eastern extremity of the peninsula, is an excellent hotel, the Orient Point House. It is delight- 
fully situated, with unsurpassed attractions, and is yearly visited by hundreds. There are also two 
boarding houses, which take each 30 guests. The Methodists and Congregationalists have each, 
erected a church, and there are two public schools. 



SAG HARBOR BRANCH. 

MORICHES (Proper Name EASTPORT). 

703^ miles from Long Island City and Brooklyn. 2 trains each way daily. Fare, $1-9$ ; excur.- 
Eion,^3.5S. 

Hotel. — Bay Side House, H. J. Rogers, Prop., 20 guests. ^S to $10 per week. 
Station for East and Centre Moriches. 

CENTRE MORICHES. 

Three miles from Moriches station. Post Office. Population (census 1875) 1,754. 2 trains each way- 
daily. Fare, $1.95 ; excursion, $3.55. 

Hotels. — Long Island Hotel, G. S. Terry, Prop., accommodates about 35 guests. Rates from $7 to- 
$10. Riverside House, John S. Baldwin, Prop,, 60 guests. Rates $8 to ^lo. Ketchum Hotel, T. V. 
Ketchum, Prop., transient. 

Private Boarding Houses.— William B. Howell, 30 guests. H.Robinson, 20; E. P. Jarvis, 20; 
Mrs. Samuel Terry, 20 ; Mr. J. H. Bishop, 35 ; A. Edwards, 25 ; David Robinson, 30 ; L. G. Terry, 20.. 
Elias Tapping, 12. Rates of board from $6 to ^8. 

Churches. — Methodist and Presbyterian. 

EAST MORICHES. 

Fare, $1.95 ; excursion, $3.55. Population, 500. 2 trains daily each way. Post Office. 

Private Boarding Houses.— De Forest Hulse accommodates 15 guests. Wells Howard, 34. Joshua 
Ferry, 65. H, F. Osborn, 25; Thomas J. Tuttle, 60. E. Howell, lo. I. D. Gildersleeve, 10. H. C. 
Smith, 30. A. W. Palmer, 15. L. Pelletrau, 30. John Robinson, 15. Hiram Howell, 15. J. Robinson,. 
12. Rates of board from ^5 to $S, according to room and time. 

Two free chapels. 

WEST MORICHES. 

Moriches Post Office. Stage connects with mail train at Yaphank Station. 
Boarding House. — Alpheas Hawkins, 20 guests. Rates $6 to ^8. 

SPEONK. 

73 miles from Long Island City and Brooklyn. Population about 175. Post Office. Methodist 
Church. 2 trains each way daily. Fare, $2; excursion, ^3.65. 

Hotels. — Rossmore House accommodates 50 guests. Stephen P. Conklin, Prop. 

Private Boarding Houses.— James Tuthill, 30 guests. Herrick Rogers, 15. H. H. Rogers, 20. 
D. W. Ruland, lo- John W. Tuthill, 35. These boarding places are from one to one and a half mdes. 
from depot: Rates of board from ^-6 to $8. 



SAG HARBOR BRANCH. 99 

Hotels. — Rossmore House accommodates 50 guests. Stephen P. Conklin, Prop. 

Private Boarding Houses. — James Tuthill, 30 guests. Hcrrick Rogers, 15. H. H. Rogers, 20. 

D. W. Ruland, 10. John W. Tuthill, 35. These boarding places are from one to one and a half 
miles from depot. Rates of board from $6 to |8. 

W ESTH AMPTON. 

75f miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Trains each way daily. Popula- 
tion, 410. Fare, $2.10; excursion, $3.80. 

First place east of Rockaway, you can drive to the ocean. 

Hotels. — Howell House accommodates 75 guests. M. D. Howell, Prop. Oneck House, 60 

E. C. Halsey, Prop. Rates of board from $10 to $12. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Mrs. Charles Howell accommodates 30 guests, !|;8 to $10. L. G. 
Rogers, 20, $6 to $8. S. B. Topping, 25, $6 to $8. John Young, 12, $6 to $8. Halsey Rogers, 25, 
$6 to $8. D. K. Halsey, 20, $8 to $10. William Raynor, 20, $6 to $8. H. F. Stevens, 15, $6 to %%. 
Miss M. K. Foster, 30, $6 to $8. Edgar Griffin, 20, $6 to $8. Sarah Culver, 18, $6 to $8. William 
C. Raynor, 12, $6 to $8. Nathan Raynor, 15, $6 to ^S. Chas. R. Bishop, 10, fj to $8. Seth R. Jagger 
20, $6 to $%. Oscar B. Raynor, 12, $7 to $8. Herrick J. Raynor, 25, ^6 to $8. Jas. McCue, 10, $6 to $8, 
J. M. Stevens, 10, $6 to $8. Wm. H. Wines, 10, $6 to ^7. 

Churches. — Methodist, Presbyterian, and one free chapel. 

Q U O G U E . 

78 miles from Long Island City. Population, 200. Telegraph and Post Office. Trains each way 
daily. Fare, $2.15 ; excursion, $3.90. Station i^ miles. Stages connect with every train. 

Hotels. -Wells House accommodates 60 guests, Selden H. Hallock, Prop. 

Boarding HousES.^Howell House, 120, J. P. Howell, Prop. Quantuc House, 40, Wm. Brewster, Prop. 
Cooper House, 50, F. H. Cooper, Prop. Wells House, 60, R. L. Wells, Prop. Post House, 40, O. Wilcox, 
Prop. Foster House, 60, J. F. Foster, Prop. Hallock House, 50, J. D. Hallock. Gardiner House, 35, Henry 
Gardiner. Wells Hotel is the only one open throughout the year. Silas E. Jessup, 12 guests. Marcus E. 
Griffin, 30, Howell Cottage, J. H. Howell, 10. Rates from $^ to $\o. 

Church. — Presbyterian. 

ATLANTIC VILLE. 

79 J miles from Long Island City. Population about 175. Post Office. One church. Trains 
each way daily. Fare, $2.20 ; excursion, $4.00. 

Hotels. — None. 

Private Boarding Houses. — B. F. Squires accommodates 25 guests. A. W. Jackson, 30. 
W. F. Halsey, 40. John Carter, 20. E. J; Downs, 15. John Brown, 15. W. H. Foster, 25. J. H. 
Philips, 15. Rates from $7 to ^10. 

GOOD GROU^"D. 

83^^ miles from Long Island City. Population, 683 (census 1875). Post Office and Methodist 
Church. Trains each way daily. Fare. $2.30 ; excursion, $4.20. 

Hotel. — W. N. Lane's Sportsmen's Retreat, accommodates 30 guests. 

Private Boarding Houses. — W. E. Phillips, 20. Joshua H. Corwin, accommodates 25; Mrs. S. R. 
Jackson, 10. Mrs. Ann Phillips, 12. Rates from $6 to ^8. 

PONDQUOGUE. 

About 2 miles from Good Ground Station, located on Sliinnecock Bay. Fine bathing, fishing, 
and hunting. 

Hotels. — Bay View House, M. Williams, Prop., accommodates 75. Wells House, 12, Geo. S. 
Wells, Prop. Foster House, Wm. S. Foster, 40, Rates from $8 to $12. Field's Hotel, T. Field, 
Prop., accommodates 30. Chas. W. Conkhn, 25, ^8 to 312. 



loo SAG HARBOR BRANCH. 

SOUTHAMPTON. 

90 1^ miles from Long Island City. Population, 1,500. Post Office, Telegraph and two churches, 
Methodist and Presbyterian. Trains each way daily. Fare, ^2.50; excursion, $4.50. 

Hotels. — Post House accommodates 45, Mrs. E. Post, Prop. Ocean House, 25, Charles Howell, 
Prop. Hunting House, 25, B. J. King, Prop. Rates from $7 to $10. 

Boarding Houses.— Mrs. Alfred Robinson, 10 guests. Henry Enstein, 15. Edward Randell, 
20. Mrs. Stanbrough, 20. Captain Halsey, 15. Mrs. H. White, 60. B. J. Green, 60. Miss Sybie 
Sandford, 25. G. Whittaker, 25. Miss Jane Woolley, 20. Henry Reeves, 30. Sheldon Halsey, 20. 
H. A. Fordham, 45. E. C. Reeves, 25. Edwin Post, 35. 

W A T E R M I L L . 

931^ miles from Long Island City. Distance from station, i\ mile. Population about 290. Trains 
each way daily. Fare, $2.60 ; excursion, $4.65. 

Hotel. — Point House, L. D. Burnett, 35 guests. 

Boarding Houses. — Mrs. Nancy Goodall, 40 guests. J. A. Burnett, 10. A. M. Benedict, 40. 
T. A Halsey, 20. P. S. Warren, 12. J. T. Halsey, 8. H. S. Rose, 8, H. M. Rose, 20. H. R. Hal- 
sey, 18. J. L. Cook, 15. Rates from $6 to $8. 

BRIDGEH AMPTON. 

96 miles from Long Island City. Population, about 2,000. Post Office and Telegraph. Methodist 
and Presbyterian churches. Town Library. Trains each way daily. Ivare, #2.65 ; excursion, $4..7$. 

Hotel. — Hull's Hotel accommodates 35, Jno. W. Hull, Prop. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Charles S. Rogers accommodates 30. Josiah Foster, 20. Jere- 
miah Ludlow, 25. James A. Rogers, 15. Jas. M. Halsey. 12. H. R. Halsey, 12. A.J.Jennings, 20. 
Hiram S. Rogers, 20. E.J. Ludlow, 15. W. A. Corwith, 15. G. L. Hand, 12. Samuel Mulford, 10. 
Albert E. Topping, 8. Mrs. E. Haines, 6. George Conklin, 5. C. C. Conklin, 30. Andrew Strong, 
10. J. A. Sandford, 10. Nathan T. Post, 12. Thomas Cooper, 20. Mrs. Allen Halsey, 5. N. A. 
Down, 10. Horatio G. Sayre, 15. Mrs. Winters, 6. James L. Sandford, 10. Henry Howell, 12. 
Theodore Picrson, 15. Josiah Rogers, 20. John L. Cook, 6. Rates from $6 to $8. 

EAST HAMPTON. 

Boarding Houses. — John D. Hedges accommodates 30, price per week f 10. John F. Gould, 
25, $10. John Parsons, 40, |io. Mrs. George Hand, 20, $10. James P. Mulford, 20, $10. Mrs. M. 
B. Cartwright, 10, $8. Mrs. R. M. Baker, 20, $10. George Bushnell, 15, $8. Mrs. Helen Stratton, 
T5, $10. Henry A. Parsons, 40, .$10. Henry B. Tuthill, 10, f 10. J. H. Parsons, 30, $8. William 
S. Gardiner, 25, $7. Joseph S. Osborn, 20, $10. Mrs. Dr. J. C. Hedges, 10, $10. William L. Osborn, 
30, $10, Stafford Tillinghast, 10, |io. Theodore Stratton, 35, $12. David H. Huntting, Jr., 15, $7. 

SAG HARBOR. 

Ioo| miles from Long Island City. Population about 2,267. Post Office and Telegraph. 5 churches, 
Methodist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Roman Catholic Church and Convent. Two newspapers, 
jSxpress 2in6. Corrector. Trains each way daily. Fare, $2.75 ; excursion, $4.75. 

Hotels. — Nassau House accommodates 30, R. J. Power, Prop. American Hotel, 30, Freeman 
& Young, Prop. East End House, 25, Mrs. Polly, Prop. Rates from $7 to $12, according to room 
and time. 

Boarding Houses.— Mrs. Douglass accommodates 15. Mrs. Wade (O. R.), 15. Mrs. M, J. 
Graham, 10. Capt. G. S. Tooker, 10. H. French, 12. Rates from $8 to $10. 

AMAGANSETT. 

Boarding Houses. — Post Office. Benjamin H. Terry accommodates 25, price per week ,^9. Benjamin 
Barnes, 30, ^8. Thomas Spicer, 30, $8. Nathaniel Hand, ..;o, $S. Theodore H. Conklin, 15, |8. J. M. 
Edwards, 10, ^8. 



lOI 



PORT JEFFERSON BRANCH. 



SYOSSET. 

29^ miles from Long Island City. Population, 90. Post Office and Methodist Church. Trains 
each way daily. Fare, 80 cents ; excursion, $1.50 ; 6 months, $56 ; 12 months, $85. 

Bell's Hotel, Peter A. Bell, Prop., accommodates about 20. Rates about $6 per week. 

WOODBURY. 

32 miles from Long Island City. Population, 200. Post Office and Methodist Church. Train 
each way daily. Fare, 90 cents ; excursion, $1.60 ; 6 months, $57 ; 12 months, $87. 
No Hotels. 
Private Boarding Houses. — William Wheatley, 10. Rates from $5 to ^7. 

OYSTER BAY. 

29} miles from Long Island City to Syosset Station, and 4 miles by stage. Population, 2,000. 
Post Office and 5 churches, Episcopal, Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist. Trains each 
way daily. Fare, 95 cents ; excursion, $1.40 ; 6 months, $56.00; 12 months, $85.00. 

Hotel. — Nassau House, 20 guests ; Prop., B. A. Black ; $8 to $10. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Burrill Betts, 12 guests. Mrs. Williams, 40. Mrs. Smith, 50. 
John Wright, 30. Henry Sammis, 10. Mrs. Andrew Cheshire, 20. Mrs. Baylis, 10. Miss Waters, 20. 
R. Valentine, 10. Mrs. Gibson, 10. Mrs. Moore, 10. Rates from $4 to $7. 

COLD SPRING HARBOR (Station Woodbury). 

32 miles from Long Island City to Woodbury Station, and 2 miles from Depot to the village Post 
Offlce. . Methodist, Episcopal, and Baptist churches. Population, 1,000. Trains each way daily. 
Fare, 90 cents ; excursion, $1.60 ; 6 months, $57 ; 12 months, $87. 

Hotels. — Laurelton Hall, 3)^ miles from Depot, accommodates 200; W. B. Gerard, Prop.; rates from 
$10 to ^12; stages meet trains at Woodbury Depot. Forest Lawn House accommodates 140; Mrs. C. W. 
Doane, Prop., $8 to ^10. Thespian Hall, 40. Burr's Inn, 40. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Mountain House, S. Smith. Mrs. William Wood, 20 guests. David 
Rogers, 10. Gilbert Jayne, 8. George Dennison, 10. Sidney Titus, 12. William Warren, 10. Rates 
from $6 to $l. 

Note.— Stagey connect with trains from Laurelton Hall, Cold Spring Harbor, at Syosset Station. 

HUNTINGTON. 

SS\ miles from Long Island City. From Depot, 4 miles. Conklin's Stages. Post Office and 
Telegraph. Churches— Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Universalist, Methodist, and Bap- 
tist. Population in 1875, 2,298. Trains each way daily. Fare, $1 ; excursion, $i.So ; 6 months, $58 ; 
12 months, $89. 

Hotels.— Suffolk Hotel, 50 guests, Samuel Hubb, Prop.y $-j to $10. Huntington House, 30, C. H. 
Ritter, Prop., $7 to $10. Clark's Club House on Point. North Side House, G. Hobbs, 15, ^5. 

Boarding Houses.— Mrs. Hewlett J. Long, 10 guests. C. J. Bancroft, 10. Mrs. M. J. Tal- 
mage, 12. Mrs. Hamilton, 10. M. L. Smith, 6. Mrs. Gilbert Smith, 8. Misses Conklin, 12. 
Henry Ketcham, 6. Mary J. Conklin, 10. Capt. Alex. Johnson, 12. Mrs. J. Johnson, 12. S. C. 
Brown, 10. Rates from $6 to $10, according to room and time. 



I02 PORT JEFFERSON BRANCH. 

CENTREPORT. 

37^ miles from Long Island City, xy^ miles from Station. Post Office and two Methodist churches. 
Population, 1,500. Trains each way daily. Fare, $1.05; excursion, ^1.90; 6 months, ;^59 ; yearly, $91. 

Hotel. — Centreport Hotel, Chas. O. Merrill, Prop., accommodates 15. Price from $6 to $8. 

Private Boakuing Houses. — Wm. H. Benham, 10 guests. Joseph Irwin, 10. Jno. Schumaker, S. 
George Francis, 12. L.J. Martin, 40. D. C. Chalmers, 12, Dr. Jayne, 10. A. Wilson, 10. 

GREENLAW N STATION. 

North Side House, E. O. Reeve, Prop., 15 guests. Price from $6 to $i<j. Greenlawn Hotel, 
W. S. Hudson, Prop., 6 guests, $5. * 

NORTHPORT. 

4oi miles from Long Island City, i mile from Station, and 2 miles from East Northport Station. 
Stage connects with all trains. Post Office and Telegraph. Three churches — Presbyterian, Metho- 
dist, and Baptist. Population about 1,827 (1S75 census;>. Trains each wajr daily. Fare, f i.io ; 
excursion, $2 ; 6 months, $62 ; year, $95. 

Hotels. — Northport House accommodates 40, Selah Smith, Prop., $7 to $10. National Hall, 15, 
E. Soper. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Mrs. Reilly, 20 guests. Reuben Baldwin, 10. John Lewis, 12. 
P. H. Ackerly, 50. David Lewis, 12. Mrs. J. Arthur, 10. Rates from $6 to $8. 

Newspapers. — Stiffolk County Journal and Northport Weekly. 

ST. JOHNLAND. 

44 miles from Long Island City. Population, 500, 

Fare, ^i.20; excursion, ^2.20; 6 months, $63 ; 12 months, $97. Board can be had at farmers' houses 

SMITHTOWN. 

47^ miles from Long Island City. Population, 250. Post Office. Methodist, Presbyterian, 
Episcopal,*and Catholic churches. Trains each way daily. Fare, $1.30; excursion, $2.40 ; 6 months, 
$69 ; year, $105. 

Hotels. — Grand Central Hotel (transient), E. Smith, Prop. River Side Hotel accommodates 10, 
B. B. Newton, Prop. Rates $\ per day. The hotels are about \ mile from station. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Mrs. Egbert Brush accommodates 6. Rates, $6 per week. Stephen 
J. Halsey, 10. $7 per week. 

ST. JAMES. 

50J miles from Long Island City, and from Station, |- to I mile. 2\ miles from Long Island Sound, and 
4 miles to Lake Ronkonkoma. Post Office. Methodist and Episcopal churches. Population, 150. Fare, 
^1.40 ; excursion, ^2.50; 6 months, ^70; year, ^107. Trains each way daily. 

Private Boarding Houses. — J. H. Jewell, 4 guests. Mrs. Harriet Smith, 6. Hiram Howell, 10. 
Mrs. Thomas Hubbs, 6, E. O. Smith, 4. Mrs. Dayton, 8. E. W. Smith, 8. Rates from $4 to ^7. 

STONY BROOK. 

53f miles from Long Island City. Population, 1,000. Post Ofhce. Methodist and Presbyterian 
Church. Trains each way daily. Fare, $1.50 ; excursion, $2.70 ; 6 months, $72 ; 12 months, $111. 

Stony Brook Hotel, James Horton, Prop., accommodates about 75, and price from $7 to $10 
per week. 

Private Boarding Houses. — William Jewell accommodates 6. N. S. Hawkins, 6. G. P. Wil- 
liamson, 5. Mrs. Hunter, 4. Alonzo Hand, 4. Capt. John Youngs, 5. Mrs. Nathan Oake.^, 4. 



GLEN COVE BRANCH. 103 

D. W. Sherry, 10. Isaac Brown, 8. Thomas S.Wells, 10. G. H. King, 10. John Darling, 20. 
JMisses Dominick, 5. Mrs. Dickerson, 25, Chas. O. Dowd, 20. Mrs. Groesbeck, 15. Henry Smith, 5. 
Rates of board, from $6 to $8. 

From depot i mile, by D. W. Sherry stages. 

SETAUKET. 

55 J miles from Long Island City. Population, 800. Post Office. Presbyterian, Methodist, and 
Episcopal churches. 

Trains each way daily. Fare, $1.55 ; excursion, $2.80; 6 months, $73 ; year, $112. 

Boarding Houses. — Mrs. H. W. Rowland accommodates 20. Mrs. O. W. Rogers, 12. George 
Terrell, 12. Mrs. J. Howell, 12. John Elderkins, 20. Miss Dominick, 12. Rates of board from $5 
to $6 and $7. The Boarding Houses are from i to 4 miles from the Depot. 

OLD FIELD POINT. 

2| miles from station. 3 miles from Setauket Depot. Walter Smith's stage. 
Churches. — Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist and Lutheran. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Mrs. Vincent Dickerson, 25 guests. Mr. Chas. O'Dowd, 25. 
John Darling, 20. Rates, $5 to f 7. 

PORT JEFFERSON. 

58 miles from Long Island City. Population in 1875, 1,697. Post Office. Five churches — Pres- 
byterian, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic. One newspaper. Port Jefferson Times. 
Trains each way daily. Fare, $1.60 ; excursion, $2.90 ; 6 months, $75 ; year, $115. 

Hotels. — Townsend House accommodates 35, C. H. Davis, Prop. ; rates, $7 to $10. Port Jef- 
ferson House, 35, S. R Davis & Son, Props., $7 to $10. Smith's Hotel, 20, L. J. Smith, Prop.; Raynor's 
Hotel, 25 guests ; rates $6 to $8. 

Boarding Houses. — Daniel Gildersleeve accommodates 12. Mrs. E. B. Gildersleeve, 5. Mrs. 

E. P. Tooker, 10. Mrs. Hamilton Tooker, 10. Mrs. H. W. Svveezy, 8. From Depot i mile, by 
Jno. W. Brown's stages. < 

Mrs. C. L. Bayles accommodates 20. Mrs. Nancy Thompson, 6. Near Depot. 
Rates of board from $6 to $8. 



GLEN COVE BRANCH. 
ROSLYN. 

22f miles from Long Island City, and i mile by stage from Station. Post Office. Population 
about 800. Methodist, Dutch Reformed, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic churches. Trains each 
way daily. Fare, 60 cents ; excursion, 80 cents ; 6 months, .$50 ; 12 months, $77. 

Hotels. — Roslyn Hotel, John Charlick, Prop., accommodates 25,^710 $10. Roslyn Pavilion (Wm. 
Haydock, owner) accommodates about 80. 

Private Boarding Houses. — John Valentine accommodates 25, $5 to $7. Thomas Boyle 
(Steamboat Landing), 20, $5 to $6. 

SEA CLIFF (Glen Head Station). 

26 miles from Long Island City, and 2 miles by stage from Glen Head Station. Post Office. 
Trains each way daily. Fare to Glen Head, 65 cents ; excursion, 80 cents ; 6 months, $53 ; 
12 months, $81. 

Hotel. — Sea Cliff House, M. H. Clinton, Prop., accommodates from 350 to 400 guests. Prices range 
from $•] to $12. 



I04 E OCX A WAY BRANCH. 

GLEN COVE. 

27I miles from Long Island City, and \ mile by stage from Depot. Post Office and Telegraph. 
Population from 2,500 to 3,000. Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic churches. 
Two newspapers. Trains each way daily. Fare, 70 cents ; excursion, 80 cents ; 6 months, S54 1- 
12 months, $83, 

Hotels. — Glen Cove Hotel, Isaac Snedecor, Prop., accommodates 25, $6 to $8. Schleisher 
Hotel, Frederick Schleisher, Prop., 15 transient. 

Boarding Houses. — Mrs. Mary A. Miller accommodates 20. Mrs. W. Merritt, 15. Mrs. Sam- 
uel Y. Cole, 40. Thomas T. Jackson, 25. Samuel M. Titus, 12. George Searing, 20. E. S. Hen- 
drickson, 20. Samuel Frost, 10. Valentine Frost, 10. Willett Weeks, 30. Rates according to room, 
and time, from $6 to $8. 

LOCUST VALLEY. 

29J miles from Long Island City, i\ mile from Long Island Sound. Population, 1,000. Post 
Office. Methodist, Reformed Dutch church, and Quaker. Large Public School and Friends' Semi- 
nary, accommodating 100 scholars. Trains each way daily. Fare, 75 cents ; excursion, 80 cents ; 
6 months, $56 ; 12 months, $85. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Mr. Thomas F. Underhill accommodates 20. C. E. Feeks, 50- 
F. Smith, 60. B. F. Cock, 10. Jno. Baylis, 10. Misses Cock, 30, Mr. Christian Furling, 20.. 
Rates of board from $6 to f 8, according to room and time. 



ROCKA^VAY BRANCH. 

HEW LETTS. 

18 miles from Long Island City. Post Office. Fare, 50 cents ; excursion, 95 cents ; 6 months,. 
$44 ; 12 months, $67. 

WOODSBURGH. 

\%\ miles from Long Island City. Post Office. Methodist Church. Trains each way daily.. 
Fare, 55 cents ; excursion, $1 ; 6 rqonths, $44 ; 12 months, $68. 

Hotels. — Pavilion Hotel, Walker & Gladwin, Prop., accommodates 400, .$10 to $15. Neptune- 
House, Martin Wood, Prop., 50, $10. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Mrs. William H. Noe accommodates 40. Mrs. C. Pearsall, 10 guests. E.^ 
D. Beekman, 12 guests, ^6 to $8. 

OCEAN POINT. 

igi miles from Long Island City. Post Office. Trains each way daily. Fare, 55 cents; excur- 
sion, $1 ; 6 months, $46 ; 12 months, $70. 

Private Boarding Houses. — John R. Hicks, 7 to 8 guests ; price, $6 to $8. John Carmen, 8;- 
price, $6 to $8. 

LAWRENCE. 

20^ miles from Long Island City. Post Office. Trains each way daily. Fare, 55 cents ; excur- 
sion, $1 ; 6 months, $47 ; 12 months, $72. 
No Hotels. 
Private Boarding House. — Mrs. Wanser accommodates 15 , price, $7. 

FAR ROCKAWAY. 

2lf miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Episcopal and Roman. 
Catholic churches. Trains each way daily. Fare, 60 cents; excursion, $1.10; 6 months, $49; 
12 months, $75. 

Hotels.— United States, Michael Mulry, Prop., accommodates 300, $10 to |i2. Coleman House, 
Jno. J. Coleman, 200, $10 to $12. National Hotel, Thomas Casey, 100, $10 to |i2. Pavilion Hotel, 
Joseph McKim, 150, $10 to $12. Beach Hotel, Mrs. E. McCabe, 100, $10 to |i2. Union Surf Hotel.. 



SOUTHERN DIVISION. io5 

David Roach, 75, $12 to $15. Foss Hotel, Julius Foss, 75, $10 to $12. New York Hotel, Jno. 
Cavanaugh, 75, $8 to $10. Atlantic Hotel, 100, $8 to $10. Transatlantic Hotel, William Caffrey, 70, 
|8 to $10. Neptune House, Jacob Haffner, 75, $8 to $10. Madison House, Michael Dwyer, 30, 
$8 to $10. Alhambra Hotel, Jno. Wynn, 50, f8 to $10. Metropolitan Hotel, J. Spellman, 15, $8 

to Ji^io. Atlantic Garden, C. Schmidt, 25, ^10 to ^12. St. James Hotel, 60; ^10 to ^512. Hope House, 15, 

j58to$io. Grand Union, H. Levy, 75, $10 to $12. Terrace Garden, Patrick Craig, 30,^8 to ^10. Mansion 

House (A. Degrauw, owner), lOO, $10 to ;gi2. 

Boarding Houses.— Mrs. Daniel Mott accommodates 50, ^8 to ^15. Hoffman House, 60 guests, %\o. 

to;5Si2. 

ROCKAWAY BEACH. 
«6 miles from Long Island City. Fare, 70 cents ; excursion, $1.30; 6 months, $53; 12 mo., $8i. 



SOUTHERN DIVISION. 
RICHMOND HILL. 

Eight miles from Long Island City, and having Post Office and Telegraph Station. 

At eight miles or twenty minutes' ride from the ferry, and after passing the thickly wooded crest of the 
Long Island hills, we suddenly emerge upon the village of Richmond Hill. The eye takes in at once the 
beauties of that portion of the place lying nearest to the road. This includes a number of commodious 
dwellings, and many neat cottages, with the handsome Church, School-house and Depot. But not half of 
the beauty of the place can be seen without visiting the hills which overlook all that part of the Island, and 
the ocean itself. The improvements are all new and elegant, the broad streets are lined with choice shade 
trees, and the station surrounded l>y neat parks. Intended especially for private residences, the whole place 
has been restricted against nuisances of every kind. It has a general southern exposure, with loam and 
gravel surface, and these conditions, together with pure ocean breezes and perfect drainage, make it one 
of the healthiest places on the Island. It lies in the convergence of the principal roads from the two cities^ 
and in point of convenience of access and attractive surroundings, is unsurpassed by any place on the road. 
The drives in the vicinity are highly picturesque, and we especially commend the circuit from Jamaica over 
the Hoffman Boulevard to Hopedale, and thence by Union Avenue and Richmond Hill Drive, over the hills 
to the depot. The varied scenery of hill, forest and plain, cannot fail to please even the dullest observer. 
Among the most notable residences are those of Messrs. Mars, Fash, Bronson, Kessler, Graves, Matson anH 
Kimber. 

Annual commutation, including ferriage, and available by either of the following routes, ;^55: 

Via Long Island City to 34th Street, James Slip or Wal' Street. 

Via Atlantic Avenue Branch to Wall, Fulton and Catharine Ferries. 

Via Bushwick to Grand and South 7th Street Ferries. 

SPRINGFIELD. 

I3f miles. Fare, 40 cents ; excursion, 70 cents ; x month, $7.25; 3 months, $19.75; 6 months, 
$35.75 ; 12 months, $57. 

FOSTER'S MEADOW. 

Fare, 45 cents; excursion, 80 cents; i month, ^7.75; 3 months, $21; 6 months, $38.25 ; 
12 months, $61. 

VALLEY STREAM. 

\b\ miles from Long Island City. Population, 350. Post Office and Telegraph. Episcopal 
Church. Point for divergence of Branch Railway to Rockaway and intermediate stations. Fare, 45 cents ; 
excursion, 75 cents ; I month, $8; 3 months, $22.25 ; 6 months $40 50; 12 months, ^65, 

Hotels. — Rockaway Branch House. Valley Stream House, A. Bruns. 



io6 SOUTHERN DIVISION. 

PEARS ALLS. 

\%\ miles from Long Island City. Population, 400 to 500. Post Office and Telegraph. Meth- 
odist Church. Trains each way daily. Fare, 50 cents; excursion, 95 cents; i month, $8.50; 
.3 months, $24; 6 months, $43.50 ; 12 months, $70. 

Hotels. — Furman House, Samuel Furman. Pearsall House, E. Abrams. 

Boarding Houses —Richard Carman, 50 guests, ^6 to ^8. Dr. R, B. Baisely, 10, $6 to $Z. Mrs. M. 
■C. Ellmore, 10, $(> to $%. Henry DeMott, 10, ^6 to ^8. 

ROCKVILLE CENTRE. 

19J- miles from Long Island City. Population, 1,500. Post Office and Telegraph. Methodist and 
baptist churches, and one newspaper, Southside Observer. Trains each way daily. Fare, 55 cents ; excur- 
sion, ^I ; I month, $9 ; 3 months, $24.50 ; 6 months, $44.50 ; 12 months, $72. 

Hotels. — La Roza House, Mrs. A. La Roza, Prop., accommodates 30. Crossmau House, W. H. 
■Crossman, Prop., 15, ^5 per week. 

Boarding Houses. — Mrs. W. Wright, 12 guests. K. P. Chapin, 15, $4 to $6 per week. 

BALDWINS. 

2\\ miles from Long Island City. Population, 1,500. Post Office. Methodist Church. Trains 
•each way daily. Fare, 60 cents; e.Kcursion, $1.10 ; 6 months, $49; 12 mo., $75. 

Hotels. — Baldwin House, T. Jones, Prop., accommodates 30 ; jirice, $b. Milburn House, S. Brower, 
Prop., 10, $5. 

Boarding Houses. — Mrs. Sally Treadwell accommodates 10 to 12 ; price, $5. Mrs. Thomas 
Baldwin, 8 to 10, $5. Mrs. Merriott, 6 to 8, I5. 

FREEPORT. 

22f miles from Long Island City. Population, 800. Telegraph and Post Office. Methodist 
and Presbyterian churches. Trains each way daily. Fare, 65 cents; excursion, $1.15; 6 months» 
$50; 12 months, $77. 

Hotels. — Central Hotel, Benj. T. D. Smith, transient guests only. Walton House, Edgar Wright, 
transient guests onl}'. 

Boarding House, — Mrs. Richard Smith accommodates 30, %'i.so. 

MERRICK. 

24^ miles from Long Island City. Population, 500. Post Office and Telegraph. Methodist Church. 
"Trains each way daily, Fare, 70 cents ; excursion, $1.25 ; 6 months, $52 ; 12 months, $80. 

Private Boarding Houses. — H. J. Goodenough accommodates 15, $8 per week. Mrs. Munn, 
10, $8 per week. 

Camp Meeting grounds i mile from station. 

BELLMORE. 

25I miles from Long Island City, Population about 400. Post Office. Presbyterian and Meth- 
odist churches. Trains each way daily. Fare, 75 cents; excursion, $1.30; six months, $53; 
twelve months, !|8i.oo. 

Hotel. — Sportsman's Hotel, B. F. Sammis, Prop., accommodates 15. 

SOUTH OYSTER BAY. 

28| miles from Long Island City. Population about 500. Post Office and Telegraph. Episco- 
pal and Methodist churches. Trains each way daily. Fare, 80 cents ; excursion, $1.45 ; six months, 
^55 ; twelve months, $84. 



SOUTHERN DIVISION. 107 

Hotels. — Kilian's Hotel, Mrs. Maria Kilian, Prop.^ accommodates 25, ^8 to §12; near depot. Van- 
derwater's Hotel, B. L. Vanderwater, Prop., 30, $8 to $12. 

Boarding Houses. — Misses Vandewater accommodate 10. E, M. Woodin, 8 to 10. P. Mack, 15 to 
18. Price, ^8 to $12. 

Village I mile from station. Stage meets every train. 

AMITYVILLE. 

31J miles from Long Island City. Population about 1,200. Telegraph and Post Office. Two 
Methodist churches. Trains each way daily. Fare, 90 cents ; excursion, $1.60 ; six months, $56.50; 
twelve months, $85. 

Hotels. — South Side Hotel, E. C. King & Son, Prop., 125 guests, $8 to |i2. Revere House, at 
depot, Tovvnsend Wright, Prop., 60, $8 to $10. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Mrs. A. Birch, 12, ^6 to ^8. G. P. Williams, 30, $7 to $10. Mrs. R. 
E. Seaman, 20. Jas. Bennett, 12, ^7 to ^10. 

Stages connect with all trains. Distance from depot )^ mile. 

BRESLAU. 

34 miles from Long Island City. Post Office. Three Churches and two Hotels. Public School, Cord 
and Tassel Factory. German Settlement. Trains each way daily. Fare, 95 cents; excursion, $1.70 ; six 

.months, $57; twelve monihs, $8S. 

BABYLON. 

37 miles from Long Island City. Population in 1875, 2,166. Telegraph and Post Office. Meth- 
odist, Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic churches. Trains each way daily. Fare, 
II1.05 ; excursion, $1.85 ; six months. $59 ; twelve months, $90. 

Hotels. — Watson House, Selah C. Smith, Prop., accommodates 150. American House, Mrs. P. 
A. Seaman, Prop., 70. Price $10 to $T2. La Grange House, J. P. Dodge, Prop., 70. Price $to 
to $12. Washington Hotel, at depot, John Lux, Prop., 30. Price $8 to $10. 

Boarding Houses. — Mrs. T. S. Carll, accommodates 25. Price $8 to $14. Mrs. James B. 
Cooper, 15, $8 to $10. Mrs. Eaton, 20, $8 to ^10. Mrs. Peter H. Hopkins, 12, $8 to $\o. Mrs. Pamela 
Lumm, 25, $8 to $10. 

FIRE I SLAND. . 



BAY SHORE. 

4i|- miles from Long Island City. Population, 1,700. Telegraph and Post Office. Methodist, 
Congregational and Roman Catholic churches. Trains each way daily. Fare, $1.15 ; excursion, 
$2.10 ; six months, $62 ; twelve months, $95. 

Hotels. — Dominy's Hotel, Mrs. Dominy, Prop., accommodates 100. Price $15. Prospect 
House, J. M. Rogers, Prop., accommodates 400. Price $10 to $12. Bay Shore House, R. Rhodes, Prop., 
50 guests, ^8 to $12. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Howell House, Capt. Plowell, accommodates 35, $10 to ^12. Mrs. 
Doxee, $8 to $10. Mrs. Ritchie, $7 to $10. Mrs. Wicks, $8 to ^10. Mrs. Peckwell, §8 to $\o. Mrs. 
Graham, 40, %Z to $12. 

Distance from depot to village \ mile. Stages connect with all trains. The drives east and west 
of Bay Shore are very fine, passing the ground and residences of Bradish Johnson, H. B. Hyde, 
Frank Lawrence, George Wilmerding, Phcenix Remsen, and Dr. Alfred Wagstaff. 

ISLIP. 

43i miles from Long Island City. Population, 1,987. Post Office and Telegraph. Methodist, 
T^piscopal, Roman Catholic, and Presbyterian churches. Trains each way daily. Fare, ^1.20; excursion, 
;$2.20; six months, $63- year, $97. 



io8 SOUTHERN DIVISION. 

Hotels. — Lake House, A. R. Stellenwerf, Prop., accommodates 200, $\z to ^14. Pavilion Hotel, P, 
D. Carrique, Prop., 300, ^9 to $\2. Somerset House, Geo. Westcott, Prop., 30, $% to ^10. 

Boarding Houses. — H. S. Doxsee, 12 guests, price ^7 to ^8. Mrs. A. Smith, 15, ^6 to ^8, Mrs. H. 
D. Whitman, 8. Whitman Duryea, 10. Nelson Ketcham, ^6 to $%. 

The village about \ mile from station. Stages connect with all trains. 

Principal Residences. — Joseph W. Meeks, J. Bowman Johnston, Wm. K. Knapp, Dr. Abram, 
G. Thompson, John D. Prince, Benjamin Welles, Lee Johnson, Wm. Nicoll, R. O. Colt, Jonathan 
Thompson. Vanderbilt. Geo. L. Lorillard. Dr. T. S. Ryder, 

SAYVILLE. 

5o|- miles from Long Island City. Population, 2,351 (census of 1875). Telegraph and Post 
Office. Episcopal, Methodist, Congregational, and Reformed Dutch Church. Trains each way daily. 
Fare, $1.40 ; excursion, $2.55 ; six months, $70 ; twelve months, $107. 

Hotels. — Bedell House, B. W, Field, manager, 30 guests. Rates $6 to $10. Foster House, 
A. D. Foster, Prop., 30, $7 to $10. 

Boarding Houses. — E. N. Danes accommodates 25. Rates $6 to $10. L C. Green accommodates 
25. Chas. H. Hulse, 25. Mrs. J. Wilson, 40. Rates ^6 to $?>. 

Ocean Grove, Pavilion, Fire Island Beach opposite Sayville, by boat in 30 minutes. Round 
trip, 25 cents. 

BAYPORT. 

52 miles from Long Island City. Population, 800. Post Office and Methodist Church. Trains 
each way daily. Fare, $1.45 ; excursion, $2.60 ; six months, $71 ; twelve months, $109. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Mrs. Water Horman accommodates 12. Mrs. Lambert Snedecor, 6. 
Mrs. Frank Edwards, 8. William Needham, 28. Daniel Howell, 6. Garrett Smith, 10. Rates from ^6 to $10. 

Distance from station to village ^- mile. 

BLUEPOINT. 

52I miles from Long Island City. Population, 400. Post Office. Methodist and Baptist 
churches. Fare, .fi.45 ; excursion, $2.65 ; six months, $72; twelve months, $110. 

Trains each way daily. 

Private Boarding Houses. — Joel Furman accommodates 20. William Squires, 10. H. Bishop, 
8. Mrs. Hudson Still, 10. Mrs. S. L'Hommedieu, 6 guests. Rates of board from ^5 to $7. 

P ATCHOGUE. 

54| miles from Long Island City. Population, 2,751 (1875). Post Office and Telegraph. Con- 
gregational, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Catholic churches. One newspaper. The Advance. 
Trains each way dail)'. Fare, $1.50; excursion, $2.75 ; six months, $73 ; twelve months, $112. 

Hotels. — Roe's Hotel, Austin Roe, Prop., accommodates 80. Rates from $8 to $10. Distant 
from the bay i mile. 

Boarding Houses. — Lewis Wicks accommodates 25. G. G. Horton, 25. C. H. Willetts, 20. 
Mrs. Daniel Baker, 8 to 10. Elisha Ackerly, 8 to 10. John Miller, 6 to 8. C. F. Wood, 8 to 10. 
Davis Baker, 8 to 10. A. C. Mott, 10 to 12. W. H. Newins, 6 to 8. Rates from $6 to $8. 

The Boarding Houses are from \\.o \ mile from bay. Stages run from village to the bay hourly 
Price 5 cents each way. 

BELLPORT. 

Four miles from Patchogue. Connects by Ira B. Terry stages. Population from 800 to 90a 
Post Office. Methodist and Presbj-terian churches. 

Hotel. — Bellport Bay House, H. B. Homan, Prop., accommodates 90. Rates from $10 to $12. 



NORTH SHORE DIVISION. 109 

Boarding Houses. — Miss Martha Bell accommodates 10, $10 per week. Mrs. Joseph Shaw, 10, 
%\o to $12. Mrs. E. J. Raynor. 50, $8 to $12. Mr. Salem Corwin, 15, |io. Mrs. Nelson Homar, 
10, $8 to $10. Mr. Howell Terry, 10, $8 to $10. Mr. Edwin Post, 10, |8 to $10. Capt. Orlando 
Bennett, 8, $8 to $10. Ira B. Terry, 7, $8 to $10. Mrs. David Osborn, 6 to 8. Mrs. Amelia Car- 
man, 6. Edward Tooker, 10. Mrs. C. E. Goldthwaite, 8. Mr. Henry Osborn, 8. $8 to $10. 



NORTH SHORE DIVISION. 

NEWTOWN. 

5 miles from Long Island City. Post Office. Churches — Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, 
and Baptist. Trains each way daily. Fare, 15 cents; excursion, 25 cents ; one month, $5 ; three 
months, $13.75 ; six months, $25 ; twelve months, .^39. 

HOTEis. — Newtown House, Barley «!v; O'Brien, Props., accommodates 60. Chas. Shueller's Hotel, 30. $8 
io $\o. 

Boarding Houses. — Mrs. S. Palmer accommodates 10. $8 to $10. 

FLUSHING. 

7| miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Four mails each way. 

Churches. — Episcopal, Dutch Reformed, Roman Catholic, Congregational, Methodist, Baptist, 
and Quaker Meeting House. 

Newspapers. — The. Long Island Times {d^ly and weekly) and Flushing younia/ {da.\ly and weekly). 

Banks. — Flushing and Queens County Bank and Savings Bank. 

Schools. — St. Joseph Academy, Fairchild's Institute, High School, Miss HoflFman's Young 
Ladies' Seminary and St. Michaels. 

Hotels. — Simmons Hotel, E. B. Simmons, Prop., accommodates 40. Price $8 to $10. Fountain 
House, Harry Lane, Prop., 20, $8 to $10. 

Boarding Houses. — Samuel B. Parsons accommodates 15. Price $10 to $15. Mrs. Joel Jones, 
10, $8 to $10. Mrs. Treadwell, 12, $6 to $8. Mrs. Sarah A. Hover, 12, $8 to $10. Mrs. William P. 
Foster, 10, $8 to $10. Mrs. Frederick G. Henning, 8, $6 to $8. Mrs. C. R. Lent (on the bay), 25, 
$8 to 1 10. 

Fare, 25 cents ; excursion, 40 cents ; one month, ;$5.75 ; three months, $15.75 ; six months, 
$28.50 ; twelve months, $45. 

COLLEGE POINT. 

9^ miles from Long Island City. Post Office and Telegraph. Churches — Roman Catholic, Pres- 
byterian, Lutheran, Episcopal, and Dutch Reformed. Trains each way daily. Fare, 30 cents ; excur- 
sion, 50 cents; i month, $6.25 ; 3 months, $17.50 ; 6 months, $31.50 ; 12 months, $50. The Central 
Zeittmg, College Point Mirror, and Long Island Reporter are published here. 

Hotels. — Boulevard Hotel, 100, Jno. M. Donnelly, Prop., ^10 to $12. College Point Pavilion, 20 
Julius Freygang, $8 to $10. College Point Hotel, 20, Theodore Zoeller, $% \.o $\o. Gerlach's Hotel, 10. 
Mrs. Ferlach, $% to $io. Miller's Hotel, 15, John Miller, $S to ^10. 

Boarding Houses. — John Sanderson accommodates 10, $6 to ^S. Darius Banks, 10, ^6 to $8. 

WHITESTONE. 

11 miles from Loner Island City. Telegraph and Post Office. Churches — Presbyterian, Roman 
Catholic, Episcopal, and Alethodist. One newspaper, the W/iitestone Herald [weekly Ksne). Trains each 



no NORTH SHORE DIVISION 

■way daily. Fare, 30 cents; excursion, 55 cents ; i month, ^6.75 ; 3 months, ^19; 6 months ; $34.50 12 
months, $55. 

Hotel. — Whitestone House. J. D. Locke, 150, $10 to $12. 

BAYSIDE. 

II miles from Long Island City. Post Office. No Churches or Boarding Houses. 7 trains each way 
daily. Fare, 30 cents; excursion, 55 cents; i month, $6.75 ; 3 months, $ig ; 6 months, $34.50; 12^ 
months, $55. 

Hotels. — Bayside Hotel, 75 guests, Anthony Miller, Prop., $10 to $12. Bayside House, 80. Josepb 
Crocheron, owner. Broadway, J. Mannott, 20 guests. 

LITTLE NECK. 

123^ miles from Long Island City. Fare, 35 cents ; excursion, 65 cents; i month, $7.25 : 3 months,. 
^19. 75 ; 6 months, $35.75 ; 12 months, $57, 7 trains each way daily. 

Hotels. — North Shore Hotel, Moses Little. Little Neck Hotel, Henry Snell. 

GREAT NECK. 

14 miles from Long Island City. Telegraph and Post Office. Episcopal, Methodist, Dutch Reformed,, 
and Roman Catholic Churches. Fare, 40 cents ; excursion, 75 cents; i month, $7.50; 3 months, $20.25;. 
6 months, $37; 12 months, $59. Trains each way daily. 

Hotel.— Great Neck House, Mrs. Van Cott, loo, $10. 

Boarding House.— Wm. Allen, $6 to $8. 



ESTABLISHED 1863. 



THE 



CONSOLIDITED 1877. 



BROOKLYN DAILY UNION-ARGUS. 



An independent and enterprising Republican Evening 
JVewspaper. 

A careful and thorough journal of the world's events. 



Earnest to approve and to help measures for genuine progress. 



A free, honest and conscientious Home J\!eivspaper. 



The Union-Argus is published every day (Sundays excepted), in the 
Union Building, corner of Fulton and Front Streets. 

It is the largest and best Two-Cent daily paper printed in the United 
States. 

It has the best circulation of any paper of its kind in either New York; 
or Brooklyn. 

As an advertising medium it is unequalled. 




STEEL BARB FENCE, 

Selves the FENCE Problem by meeting all the requisites of 



Every I^ancI Ovrner 

should not fail to examine 
the merits of this fence. It 
Js cheaper than all others. 
Easiest handled, and In fact 
just what the people of the 
treeless States have needed 
1 for years. 




To All Inquirers. 

It is an impassable barrier, 
yet harmless. Prohibits tres- 
passing. It can be put up by 
any one, and is compactly put 
up for transportation. In 
fact, it is the only fence dog 
and wolf proof. 



Cheaper than Wooden Fences. ImperiNhable when once in place. Tndestructible by the 
Klciiicnts. Waste no soil by Shade. Has uo Weedy Fance Borders. SlielterH no Enemies 
of Ilie Crops. A Protection at all seasons, it is easy of Coustructiou. It needs no re- 
pairs. Accumulates uo suo.v-drifts. 

A STEEL THORN HEDGE. 

Impassable Barrier. Prohibits all Trespassing. It can not be destroyed by fire, 

wind, or flood. 

100,000 miles of Barb Fence liave btcn oroctcfl in 1876, 1877, 1878. Asfricnltui- 

ists, Ht-rtlsmen, Slieep Husbandmen, Itanrlimen, Vineyard Proprietors, 

Orchardists, Nurserymen, Railroad Companies, Road Proprietors, _ 

and all owners and occupants of soil aiitl areas to be protected. 

Manufactured by Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Co., 

TTORCESTER, MASS., and 21 CLIFF ST., NEW YORK. 




L. F. DUPARQUET & HUOT, 



MANUFACTURERS OF 



FRENCH 
COOKING 

AKD 

BROILERS, 




FOB 

HOTELS, 



1 STEAMBOAXS , 



Families 



AND 



COFFEE AND TEA URNS, HOT WATER TABLES, 
Also, Copper, Tin and Cast Iron Utensils, 
34: cfc se w ooster St., 
NEW YORK, 

THE 

MoNG Island Jand Improvement Iompany. 

{Incorporated binder the lazvs of the State of Nezv York.) 

FOR THE PURCHASE AND SALE OF 

Country Seats, Residences, Farms and Waste Lands, 

In tu:e Govntims ow KiNGSt Qumjsns and Svfifolk, 



Jas. M. Oakley, President. 

Wra. H. Quincy, Vice '" & Counsel. 



Jas. H. (juinlan, Secretary. 
L. D. Simons, Manager. 



Or'FICESS, ITos- T-^ arud TS "WALL STI^BET, 

SEAMAN'S SAVING BANK BUILDING, ROOMS 27 & 28. 



!o ^^o ^m^WM ca 



IMPORTERS OF 



TWIITBS, BniLlTDlES, GIITS, ETC., 



47 BROADl^AY, 



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AGENTS FOB HOLLYWOOD CELEBRATED KYE WHISKEY. 




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pSMffs^ZM 






r/?^ designs and coloring of Wall-Paper^ for 1880, are 
unusually rich and attractive. We give a few illustrations, 
which may de briefly descrihed as follows : 

Fig. 1.— In this design, the frieze and field are taken from an old 
tapestry, while the dado has the character, form and colors of a 
Daghestan rug. 

Fig. 2.— Is a quaint old Persian pattern, from the famous collection of 
M. Balin of Paris. The treatment here is conventional, and the 
interlacing of the threads of silver and of gold gives to the deco- 
ration the appearance of a richly embroidered fabric. 

Fig. 3.— Is an Early-English floral design. Here the sweet-flag, the fuchsia 
and the pond-lily of the dado ; the morning-glory of the field ; and 
the ferns, rushes and golden-rod of the frieze, form a graceful 
and pleasing combination. 

Fig. 4.— The field of this decoration is described in Appletons' Art 
Journal of last January, as follows: "The design contains varieties 
of the forms of ^A^illow-gro-wths, ^^rithout being exact portraits of 
them. The colour of the paper is in two shades of olive-green upon 
gilded spider ^A^ebs ; brightness being given by follo^A^lng the sugges- 
tion of real wiIlo^A/s, and making the buds and portions of the stems 
red, such as they appear in early spring. There is something very 
pleasant in the love of Nature displayed in this pattern, AA^here the 
memory of the peculiarities of the tree is d\A^elt upon with such 
a fresh and loving appreciation." 

We desire to call special attention to tlie fact, that WE 

MAKE OUR BEST PATTERNS TO ORDER, IN QUANTITIES 
FOR A SINGLE ROOM, AND WILL MATCH THE COLORS OF 
DRAPERIES AND FURNITURE COVERINGS IF DESIRED. 

Skillful fresco painters and competent workmen in every 
department are employed, so that the entire work of Iiitemor 
Decoration can he executed under our own supervision.. 

FR. BECK & CO. 



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PRINTERS, 



PUBLISHERS, 



LITHOGRAPHERS, 



STATIONERS, 



21 & 23 Barclay Street. 



26 & 28 Park Place, 



ppflNpfl Df P|iJJfip^ pjjippj 



►|^^-|-^=.^ 



superior work at reasonable prices, 



Forest AND Stream I Rod and Gun, 

At the single subscription price of S4 a year, $2 for six months, or $1 
for three months. A TWENTY-FOUR PAGE WEEKLY JOUR- 
NAL. Devoted to the interests of Geiitiemen Sportsmen and their 
famiUes. Its many Departments treat of 

NATURAL HISTORY, SHOOTING. 

YACHTING. ARCHERY, 

FISH CULTURE. FISHING. 

THE KENNEL, THE RIFLE, 

CRICKET, 

And all gentlemanly outdoor sports. IT IS WITHOUT A RIVAL. 

TP^ ^T IT ! 

Ask your Newsdealer for it, or send a postal card for sample copy. 



FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY, 



BrooklynDaily Eagle. 

nrHH D AIL,Y EAGL,E i^ in its Forty-first year. It is published every afternoon on 
the working days of the week and on Sunday Mornings. The Eagle has a larger circulation 
than any other evening newspaper published in the United States. 

As .Tn advertising medium the Eagle is not surpassed. It affords to advertisers a larger con- 
centrated circulation than any other journal published in America. 

Terms td Subscrip^Lian.. 

Three cents per copy. Ten dollars per year, or at the rate of one dollar per month for any 
period less than six months. Postage prepaid in all cases. 

liatcs far .Advertising. 

SOLID AGATE MEASUREMENT— EACH INSERTION. peb line 

FIR5T PAGE lo Cents. 

SECOND OR FOURTH PA3E 20 

LOCAL AND COMMERCIAL NOTICES, THIRD OR FOURTH PA3E 50 

AMUSEMENTS 20 

No advertisement taken of less than the price of six lines' space. Personals, Marria>je and 
Death Notices one dollar for each inseition, when not exceeding six lines. No deviation from 
these rates. Cash in advance in all cases. Principal office, 

E.5.e^$.E BM3t.BmSS, Bas. 34, 3fi & 38 FuUmx St., BraakXiTU. 

^'8 C ^ i > 

All kinds of Job and Book printing done in the Job Department of the "Brooklyn 
Daily Eagle," at tbe shortest notice and at popular prices. 



^' 



# 




# 


Published by 






Pogers 


& Sherwood 




f 
i 


21=23 parclay 


Street 




Jiew 


York City 


© 




B 



For all information about Loner Island Resorts, Rates of 
Fare, Excursions, etc., apply to 

W. M. LAFFAN, 

GENERAL PASSENGER AGENT, LONG ISLAND RAILROAD, 

229 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 



